Serpent Among The Leaves
by Damar
Summary: What if a different Sannin was made Hokage after the death of the Third?
1. Prologue

**Property owned by Masashi Kishimoto. This quickly written fic is a intended one-shot, to be expanded later if my interest upholds.**

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A new dawn was rising, the sun driving away the dark and covering everything in it's radiance. Only the few who woke up in time could admire the birth of the day, one felt so inspired by it's beauty he made his way to a high point where he could see the entire village that he has sworn to defend and proclaim his promise.

"KONOHA! THIS IS NARUTO UZUMAKI, AND ONE DAY I WILL BE YOUR PROTECTOR, YOUR GUARDIAN, YOUR HOKA-!" A swift and brutal punch to the back of his head made him fall from the ledge he was standing on and land in a dumpster with a speed rivaling most comets. Back at his previous position, an furious maiden with pink hair looked down at him, waving around the hand that would have been deemed an illegal weapon of massive pain if ninjas followed the Geneva Convention.

"YOU IDIOT! Good honest people are still trying to sleep at this hour and you are screaming nonsense loud!" Sakura Haruno could not fathom after all this time how the idiot remained a idiot.

"Heh, look who's talking." An angry glare directed in his direction along with the threatening waving of her fist, even when aware that she wouldn't hurt him too badly, Sasuke Uchiha quickly stopped making more comments and obeyed the angry fist. Instead he looked away and watched how Naruto leapt back up, rubbing his sore skull while carefully keeping distance away from Sakura who herself kept a close watch on him not making any more loud outbursts.

From a nearby rooftop, their mentor allowed himself a smile at the antics of his former students. _The more things change, more they stay the same._

"Hello my faithful team, I trust you're well rested." Kakashi leapt in between the teenagers, in the most casual way possible with hands firm in his pockets. His lazy detached attitude was a disguise as everyone who has ever fought alongside the Copy Cat Ninja would know, but it could still irritate immensely.

"Well rested my ass, sensei! First we returned from Suna at four o'clock in the night, couldn't even see Hinata because of her nightshift at the hospital, and than you had your mutts wake us all up thirty minutes before sunrise! And for what?"

His teammates joined him in the glare they tried to burn Kakashi with. He rubbed the back of his head, slight embarrassed. "To tell the truth I'm not quite sure why I summoned you. Perhaps I just wanted to see you all again, for old time's sentiment."

A moment of silence went past, and Kakashi began calculating how fast he could remove his headband protector and use the Sharingan to survive the onslaught coming his way. But before the ANBU had to arrest two Jonin and one Chunin, this year he will pass the exam he promised everyone, for the gruesome murder of an elder Jonin, a green flash stepped into the firing range.

"AHA! Kakashi, my eternal rival. I see you are trying to steal one of my most prized achievements! But emotional reunions with students driven by the Fire of Youth will remain my domain! Lee!" Another smaller green flash jumped into sight, and Kakashi sighed as he knew exactly what would happen in the next moment.

Within seconds the local area was awakened by undescribable loud shouting, and Team Kakashi quickly scattered in four directions to avoid the angry mob of ninjas and villagers coming down on the oblivious Maito Gai and his favored student who kept expressing their respect for each other in the belief that the more you raised the volume the more genuine your feelings were.

* * *

Not that far away, the present Hokage looked out of his window to see what all the commotion was about. An attack was unlikely but possible, some foreign ninja with a grudge against the village and too dumb to let it go.

Someone entered the office, but the Hokage did not need to turn around to know who it was.

"Kakashi Hatake attempted a reunion with his former students, before Maito Gai arrived in the belief Kakashi was trying to challenge one of Gai's more 'known' habits. As you can hear it got somewhat out of hand, but I am confident it will be resolved without sending in a ANBU squad." _How did he always know before anyone else_? The Hokage pondered as usual at the aide's ability to be omniscient.

"If we are on the subject of Kakashi, have him and his team sent here if you can find them. B-rank missions are piling up, and I like to see if he's made attempts to grow beyond his…prejudice."

The aide doubted that. Kakashi had always been the most vocal of the ones who opposed and openly disliked the current Hokage's election, even when it was the only choice and the Hokage self hadn't been convinced it was the right one. But with time, those who had been distrustful had grown respectful, even when there was no real love or adoration for him from the village. Except for those who's lives had been changed from being dogs of war in a endless bloody struggle to loyal protectors of their new home, like the Jonin Kimimaro or the Chunin Tayuya whom the Hokage encountered and aided on his travels long before attaining his present post.

Naruto became a good student, even if he openly declared the Hokage to be 'really weird'. His friend Sakura was more friendly, and eagerly followed the training the Hokage had copied from a old, and lost friend that turned her into a medical ninja with few above her in skill. Sasuke took the longest to accept him, wary of the Hokage's intentions but like Naruto too became a favored protege who's growth in power was phenomenal.

"As you wish, Sensei." After being found fifteen years ago among a pile of dead enemies and raised as a son by the person who stood before him, Kabuto Yakushi considered the Hokage to be the closest thing to an actual father who taught him the skills to become the chief medical ninja of Konoha after their return three years ago.

"Ah, my dear Kabuto. No need for titles among old friends, I have too few of those these days. Do me this favor, only to hear someone to say my name out of friendly respect rather than disguised fear or hidden hatred." The Hokage smiled, a rare departure of the solemn expression that he held for as long as anyone could remember.

Kabuto nodded. "As you wish… Orochimaru-sama."


	2. Time Warp

**40 Years Ago**

"Orochimaru, your parents are dead...I cannot tell how sorry I am for your loss."

The ANBU Captain was not telling a lie. The war had crippled any empathic ability he had left after joining an elite unit that looked down upon emotional responses. There was still enough of a human inside that wished to remain with the boy, to provide some anchor to hold onto but duty called him away with the enemy nearing the Village in great numbers. If he had survived the ensuing battle, there might have been someone aware of the dangerous state the young boy was in.

But there was no one else. The Captain was killed shortly afterwards, his parents were already dead with no other living relatives, and despite his family having lived in Konoha for years as it was the only place where their strange looks and jutsus were accepted, they had no real friends who would have looked after the boy. At the academy, his fellow students stayed away from him, like an defensive mammal instinct that reacted upon Orochimaru's snake-like appearance. The only one who paid some attention to him was some idiot who claimed to be the Number One Ladiesman of the Village, despite being ignored or beaten up by the female students whenever he tried his 'charms'. He was somewhat amusing, but Orochimaru suspected the only reason Jiraiya talked to him was because he was the only one his age not to tell him to get lost, as he was desperate for any company.

There was this blonde girl who kept looking at him, and always turned away when she thought Orochimaru noticed her watching him, which he assumed was because she was terrified of the 'Number One Freak' and feared him biting her if she didn't constantly watch his back. He didn't quite understand her skin turning red whenever she looked away, perhaps an odd biological reaction to fear.

In the end, Orochimaru was alone. And in a different time, he would have remained so. Cultivating a growing sense of isolation and detachment, that in the end gave birth to the belief that people stayed away because of his superiority, that others were scared little creatures who should be trampled upon. That power was the only thing that truelly mattered in this world, and death was a punishment for those too weak to resist it. In that time, he'd grow up to be one of the most evil monsters to walk the world, and his name would be uttered with the hint of fear by even the strongest Kage.

"Orochimaru?" The boy looked up and despite his grief, his eyes widenend at the person who stood before him.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, had come to see what he could do for the boy after his loss. Despite having returned from the frontlines only a hour ago, his brief glance on the most recent casualty report had discovered the names of the boy's parents at the top of the list. At first he thought it was a misprint, there was no way both of them could have been killed at the same time despite working in different occupations at different locations. When requesting details, he learned the father, a hardworking Jonin, had been attacked with a extremely lethal poison that worked on skin contact alone. The mother, a medic, had sent away the others to minimize further casualties and operated on him alone despite the risk. A brave act, that ultimately proved useless and both died side by side. They were forced to have one of the Uchihas burn the bodies, so potent was the toxin used by the puppetmaster known as Chiyo.

"Sandaime..." Orochimaru felt unsure how to respond to the Hokage visiting him personally, while nobody else had. Even his parent's collagues kept a distance when off-duty, though their isolation was mostly self chosen, a lifetime of running and hiding through the Great Countries had made it difficult to trust anyone but themselves.

"I am sorry for your loss, Orochimaru. They died protecting our home from our enemies. They died protecting you. I know nothing I say or do will lessen the pain of losing those you love. But I want to make something very clear." Sarutobi lowered himself on one knee, his face now directly staring into the boy's eyes that uncannily resembled those of a cold-blooded reptile. "You are not alone in Konoha, and you never will be."

The young boy felt the urge to tell the Hokage he was wrong. That his parents were wrong, when they thought Konoha would mean the end of their struggle, a safe place to raise their son and see him become a good ninja. That it only resulted in their deaths, and their son would remain a pariah for the rest of his life. As he tried to said his feelings, the only thing that came out was a stutter. And as much he tried to fight back, his eyes began to water, and suddenly all his views, his ideas, his pride, were all replaced by the immense physical and emotional need for someone to hold him so he wouldn't be alone.

Sarutobi was somewhat surprised by the sudden breakdown of someone whom he, like many others, held the prejudice of being as cold as the creature he resembled. But as he held the crying boy to his shoulder, he knew it to be true. That Orochimaru was as much a human as anyone else. In a few minutes, he will take the boy to his home and officially adopt him. Sarutobi and his wife were looking forward to having children, but a long and vulnerable proces as a pregnacy was a too great a risk in this time of war.

After a few minutes of silence, Sarutobi took the boy the shoulder and led him to his new home. The journey was a quiet one, with both of them having a lot to think about. A bit suprised himself by the sudden turn of events, the Hokage's attention was suddenly drawn to a familair scent nearby. He looked down to Orochimaru.

"Say, do you like ramen?"

Orochimaru didn't, but accepted the offer nonetheless with a smile, one of the few he would give in his future life.

* * *

**20 Years Ago**

"Dan? Dan! Oh no, no, NO!" Screams filled the sleeping quarters before a female ninja rushed to the side of her comrade, who looked in confusion to the big hole in his abdomen from which dark blood began to flow. He wavered, before falling down and catched by the woman just inches away from the wooden floor that soon began to be soiled by the crimson liquid.

"You motherfucker!" A foot from a different ninja connected with the face of their target, which broke his nose and threw the body into the nearest wall. Further physical abuse was halted by the fourth ninja, who grabbed his subordinate's clenched fist in mid-swing.

"Enough, we need him alive." He turned to the more inmediate emergency at the other side of the room. In the distance he could the guards shouting and alarms being sounded. They didn't have long. "Tsunade.."

"Dan, stay conscious. Stay with me. Dan!" Tsunade used her chakra to try and close the gap in his body, but it was just too large, and there was so much blood.

"Tsunade, we need to get out of here."

"He'll die we if move him now." Tsunade didn't look at her superior, her gaze fixed at the red clutter of skin and organs.

"He will die along with the rest of us if we stay here. Konoha depends on us completing this mission." She ignored him, until Dan suddenly spoke despite the massive blood loss and the chakra narcose Tsunade put him under to relief the pain.

"I-I would rather d-die free..." Tsunade softly spoke to him to shut the hell up about dying. "-than in t-their hands.." Dan went back into the abyss, fighting against the odds that would push him in beyond return.

"You heard him, Tsunade." Behind them the target was being plucked from the wall and tied up with the special chakra-draining wires by their comrade who began growing extremely nervous at the sound of stomping feet nearby.

The female ninja ceased her medical jutsu, despite being dead sure Dan would die before they reached the hospital in Konoha. She looked up to her superior who tried his best to maintain his professional calm at her gaze of anger.

"Damn you, Orochimaru."

An hour later, with Tsunade and Orochimaru supporting the mortally wounded Dan as they leapt from branch to branch while the last member carried the prisoner over his shoulder, they finally began to near the borders of the Fire Country, where special teams of medical ninjas would await with first aid equipment. But their luck ran out, as Dan coughed up an unnatural ammount of blood, and Tsunade through her close contact could feel his heart becoming more irratic, even beginning to stop.

"Dan! DAN!"

She and Orochimaru stopped inmediatly, and lowered Dan down on the ground. The prisoner was roughly thrown against a tree by their comrade who continued onward to get aid as quick as he could. Tsunade began working inmediatly on the wound, but the blood was covering everything, and it was in the dead of night without even the moon casting a light. An ironic thing, as they intentionally decided on using the lack of moonlight to preform their stealth mission.

All Tsunade could see was the dark liquid covering her hands, his body, even Dan's face was full of it. She did everything in her power, but every heartbeat was followed by a sickening fear of it being the last she will ever feel.

Now the adrenalin and the inmediate danger of enemies overwhelming had faded away, Orochimaru felt he could vomit as he saw a friend seconds away from death, choking in his own blood, while a better friend was trying to stop the blood from pouring out like a waterfall, with little effect. Immense guilt struck him, as it was his idea, his plan, his recommendation for Dan to be on this mission despite Tsunade's objections. His friend's death would be on his account.

Behind him, he could hear someone beginning to laugh, and he knew who.

"Ha, looks like my Futon techique was effective, even at that range and you all ambushing me in my sleep. But I suppose you Konoha-filth would know all about the damage my jutsus have caused." Orochimaru turned to face their prisoner, a Cloud Jonin, and brother to the Raikage of the Hidden Cloud Village who currrently is enaged in a heavily costing war of attrition with the Hidden Leaf.

"Tell me, how many of you pathetic shinobi have I killed personally. 10? 20? I've killed so many, who all begged in the end by the way, I've lost count."

"14. You killed 2 Jonin, 8 Chunin and 4 Genin." He stated the numbers coldy, staring with his reptile eyes at the prisoner who smugly smiled despite the bruises and scratches of his harsh treatment.

"Ha, I almost forgot the brats. How unfortunate for the Leaf to think to be sending it's newest cadets away on a long safe escort mission, only for them to encounter me. Pity I didn't catch them all, _that _time."

"You will never lay another finger on our students ever again."

"AHAHAHA! You naive _freak_. You know how this will end. I will be held as a hostage, my brother signs a peace treaty that will last for maybe a year as we regroup, and than we will burn your village down and kill everyone in it! Every man, woman, chi-" The Cloud ninja's jaw nearly broke when the Leaf ninja's fist smacked into it.

"Shut up." Orochimaru felt the urge to kill the monster for what he did, rise. Everyone had a limit, even one of the Legendary Ninjas. He was sure Jiraiya would have one of his toads eat the man by now, but he prayed he could control himself until help arrived who would do their best for Dan and take this scum away. The prisoner's threats were not helping in calming him down, taking them as empty was impossible after personally witnessing the carnage the ninja had cause. The image of the dead Genin lying in the grass as he found them, their torsos torn apart by a more powerful version of the jutsu used on Dan, was burning in his mind.

"Dan...Dan..." Orochimaru turned his attention back to Tsunade, who's eyes had sprung wide open at the impossiblity of what has happend, tears streaming down in mighty flows. The entire world stopped for a moment as she looked down at the man she loved, and realized he was dead.

A scream filled with unspeakable sorrow and pain pierced the night sky, and all Orochimaru could do was stand there, and watch how Dan's blood-covered body was being cradled by his dear friend. A painful memory rose up when he accompnied his friend to see the body of her little brother brought back from the battlefield.

"Awwww, ain't that sweet. Guess you can scratch up another mark on my record, you slit-eyed freak."

The Cloud ninja was not aware he just crossed a line, that even those closest to Orochimaru were unaware that he has set. They all thought of him as a bit weird, but a loyal capable ninja who would never do any wrong. None but Sarutobi knew of his search for jutsus, powerful jutsus to help his village and friends, indiscriminate of their source. He knew things that other ninjas were inmediatly imprisoned for even attempting to learn.

But he would never thought of using them in any but the most dire of situations where all hope was lost. In this case, Orochimaru lost his restraint, and didn't gave a damn about the consquences. He would later see this as the darkest and most unforgivable time in his life, but right now he felt he owed to everyone, especially Tsunade, to make things right.

Orochimaru slowly did the handseals, faint his memory was on the right order as it been a decade when he discovered the jutsu in a ancient scroll of forbidden curses, that he only had little time to study before anyone became suspicious of his time among the most secret jutsus of the Village. He never thought, nor hoped, to use it, as he reasoned that possibly one day he might encounter it in the hands of an enemy and be able to devise a counter. How curious to eventually do it out of friendship.

"Kuchiyose! Resurrection!"

Tsunade's tight hold of Dan was not disturbed by the short high-pitched scream the Cloud ninja suddenly gave. It was her lover instantly sinking beneath the earth as if it turned to quicksand. Her sadness was replaced by shock and confusion, desperatedly trying to grasp Dan's body but it was too late. Even as she used her immense strength to dig away the dirt, he was gone and nowhere to be found.

"Orochimaru! Dan, he-" She went silent as she turned around and saw the guilt in his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And that was everything he said before a stone coffin rose up from the soil, in front of Tsunade, and the horror began.


	3. So Long

"It is time."

There were four of the animal-masked elite ninjas, all aware of the Legendary Ninja's reputation, as he was of theirs. They led him out of the small cell housed in the ANBU quarters where normally enemy ninjas were put for 'information gathering', a clean word for interrogations with torture.

The ANBU was the first to arrive at the scene, and even the cold-hearted killers were shocked by what they witnessed. Tsunade, screaming and hysterical, being restrained by Orochimaru or at least he tried to as her wild punches snapped trees in half, while not far away the Jonin Dan stood like a lifeless puppet, staring into the distance with his skin turned gray and covered in ash and dirt. After a medical team sedated Tsunade and took her back to the Village the Hokage himself arrived as the creature that looked like Dan could not be unsummoned by it's master, no matter how hard he tried. Sarutobi ordered the ANBU to take Orochimaru away, and be left alone with Dan. That was the last anyone saw of the Jonin, and the Hokage didn't look like he would be answering any questions when he returned.

Days after the incident had passed, Orochimaru had to appear before the Village Council under the guard of ANBU. Not that the Hokage was afraid that his most prized student would attempt to flee, but to offer protection against those within the Village who witnessed their one chance of ending this bloody war, being taken away in the insane use of a forbidden and morbid jutsu, involving the body of a friend. Not only did the mission fail, it turned a conflict that would have ended when both sides were too spent to continue, into a full crusade for the Raikage to avenge the beloved brother who was killed by the cowardly Leaf attackers. Even those who had no problems against the Cloud ninja's death, found the method used and it's goal too disgusting for sympathy.

Tsunade had left the Village in the dark of night to destinations unknown along with Dan's niece, which was another thing they blamed the Legendary Snake Ninja for.

Sarutobi understood why Orochimaru did it. He did not agree with it, condone it nor prepared to let it go without punishment. But he understood far too well what the best of ninjas would do when pushed in extreme circumstances. Tsunade would likely one day too understand that her friend did it out of a poorly-aimed compassion, but it will take years and years before even considering to return to the Village and be faced with the memories. And she had been his best friend apart from Jiraiya, who has on the frontlines for weeks with no one sure when he would return, or what his reaction would be.

"Orochimaru, through your actions you have done great damage to the Hidden Leaf Village." Sarutobi looked down on his student, who faced the floor. The trial was held within the Hokage Tower, with only him, Orochimaru, the Counselors, and two ANBU guards standing by the door.

"Not only did you fail your mission and lose a Jonin-ranked teammember, you preformed a illegal forbidden summoning jutsu that killed your prisoner who was a vital mission objective, converted your deceased teammate into a inhuman imitation, and caused another teammate to leave the Village because of what has occured. Do you deny any of this?"

"...I do not."

"Do you have any legitimate reasons to explain your actions?"

"No, I have none."

What would now follow would be a lie, a disguised term for eternal exile from the Village. If Orochimaru had been a regular Chunin or even a Jonin, execution by the ANBU would been considered, and life imprisonment at least. But this was one of the three Legendary Ninjas, even if he was responsible for driving one of them away, with the third remaining one already showing increasing signs of resenting his mandatory service. Execution would an unnecessary waste.

"Orochimaru, the Council has agreed-" Actually it was just Sarutobi's decision. The rest of the Council would have preferred sending him to preform a unsupported one-man guerilla campaign against the Cloud Village, in hopes of him doing as much damage as possible before dying a useful death, but the Hokage convinced them with a counter-prosposal, along with a hinted message that no one should dare challenge him on this. "-That you will be reassigned to a indefinite service as a Hunter and operate abroad. You shall not return to the Village until ordered otherwise"

The Hunter-nin. Skilled trackers who scoured the world for those who abandoned their Village, and return them by force, or make sure they would never have the chance of betraying secrets to any enemies. While the Hidden Leaf Village suffered from far lower rates of defection compaired to miserable places like the Bloody Mist or Hidden Rock, it was not a rare occurance. If the Missing-nin managed to get beyond the borders of the Land of Fire, the ANBU usually ceased their pursuit as the risks began to weigh up against the danger the defectors represented. And currently the position of Konoha was too bad to afford sparing a highly skilled ninja to be chasing minor criminals all over the world. Until now.

"You have one hour to gather supplies and items you wish to bring along on your assignment. Than you are to leave, and to make no more contact with the Hidden Leaf Village, and to only return when orders are brought to you to do so."

As Orochimaru himself had no idea where he could be in the next few days, the order was in effect a eternal banishment from the Village. Which likely appealed the rest of the Council to agree with it. Not daring to look the man who had been like a father to him since the loss of his parents in the eyes, and face the disappointment, Orochimaru only nodded at the command, bowed to pay respect to those who were unimpressed by the gesture, and than quickly left the room and the tower. The ANBU appeared to be gone, but he could sense their chakras nearby, watching him and likely continue to do so until he was at a safe distance from the Village.

Sarutobi watched him leave. He would have wanted to bid farewell personally with some advice, but it would harm the decision he seemingly made out of non-personal reasons. And intrigants like Danzo were already making trouble. But he knew this wasn't the last the Hidden Leaf Village would see of Orochimaru.

* * *

He returned to the apartment where he has lived for the last ten years after moving out from the Sarutobi Clan home, after it got crowded with the young Asuma and his little brother joining the family. It was a cheap and spacious one, due to being located in the building's basement. Despite explaining the rational reasons behind the choice countless times, Jiraiya would never stop referring it as the Snake's Den.

Orochimaru needed to change clothes, even without the vest the black jumpsuit he had been wearing for the last few days was too recognizable as a ninja's uniform, into a traveler's wardrobe. He gathered the basic supplies like spare clothing, provisions, soldier pills and of course extra kunais, shurikens, jutsu scrolls, wires and explosive tags. Than it was time for his more 'personal' affects.

He went to his bedroom, and pushed aside a book rack that was concealing a small door within the wall. Orochimaru went through it, and entered a large dimly lit chamber that resembled a medical laboratory. After obtaining the apartment, he used a simple Doton jutsu carve out this space, a cheap way to increase his living space by a third in size. Only later did he get the idea to use it to conceal secrets he didn't want people to know he had obtained, such as experimental jutsus and jutsus who's use like the Resurrection was forbidden for good reasons, but still had potential in a life or death situation. He pilled the results of experimens and research onto several empty scrolls and sealed them within, for future use.

And than there was the laboratory's occupant whom Orochimaru captured during one of his most recent missions in a enemy outpost, and had him in secret smuggled into the Village to conduct several 'tests' on a living being without any watching eyes. As the captive silently watched him, Orochimaru wondered what to do with him. Releasing him now would only cause further damage to his reputation, and killing was a bit too much. He decided that when he left the janitor would eventually discover the room and it's resident, long after he was gone.

Orochimaru stood over the captive, and gave a smile that many would consider creepy, while the other stared at him with apathetic eyes.

"Goodbye, Mr. Muffles."

As Orochimaru left he wished to have been able bring his pet along, but his mission as Hunter would have been too dangerous for the little fluffy creature.

* * *

He was fully packed and prepared for his exile, and a few minutes later Orochimaru approached the Gates of Konoha and to his astonishment a small number of people had actually assembled to bid him farewell. Though two adults and two children could hardly be called a worthy attendance for a Legendary Ninja.

"Hello Orochima-sensei. You're ready?" Despite his young age, the blonde friendly Chunin had a maturity and inner calm well beyond most those even twice his years. Very unlike his mentor, who in heart remained a big child.

"Hello Minato. I suppose I am. Where is Jiraiya? Has he returned yet from the front?"

"I'm sure he is on his way. Unless there happened to be a hot spring bath on his route. In that case, well, you know him better than I do."

Orochimaru heard Sarutobi and Jiraiya talk about Minato as a candiate for the position of Hokage, having the traits of a true leader and already possessing the skills to be one of the great ninjas to have ever lived. With himself removed from the picture, there was a good chance of that happening.

"Father, I wish you hadn't come, or at least without bringing me along." Orochimaru turned to the Hatakes, and saw Sakumo's boy already having an attitude. Propably because he was one of the first people to have graduated from the Academy as a Genin, at the astounding age of five. Sakumo was still smiling out of pride days later, but the young Kakashi shot Orochimaru a unpleasant glare. He couldn't see the boy's mouth as Kakashi pulled up his collar high enough to hide it, but predicted to be grimacing.

"I thank you for having come to wave me goodbye, Sakumo. You didn't have to." He would have done it any, Orochimaru knew. Despite his fearsome reputation that equalled the combined strength of the three Legendary Ninja, Sakumo was the kindest and most loyal man he or anyone else has ever met. A cynical person would say such kindness has no place among ninjas.

"Not a problem. I apologize for my son's behaviour, despite his achievements he remains a child."

"A child who knows better than his own father that we shouldn't be talking with someone who has caused ruin to the Vil-OW!" Kakashi's rant was ended by a hard fist coming on his head, it belonging to a very young girl with black hair who looked furious.

"Don't say stuff like that about Orochimaru-sama!" Little Anko was quite the fan of the Snake Ninja according to some rumours, which touched Orochimaru quite a bit as for whom friends were a rare custom, fangirls were a nigh-impossibility. He regretted her having been too young to be a Genin, as he would have gladly taken her on as a student. Now it was too late, and doubted to ever see her or the rest of the Hidden Village again.

"Be careful with Kakashi, Anko. He may end up being your future boyfriend, and you wouldn't want to brain damage him too much before that time."

The two kids instantly paled, and cast one short glance at each other before running away screaming in opposite directions. Sakumo began to run after his son, but his pace was slowed by the uncontrollable laughing. He waved Orochimaru goodbye before running around a corner and increasing his speed. If he didn't catch his son fast he'd be halfway to the Sand Village.

Orochimaru parted with Minato, and took his steps through the Gates and outwards into the great hostile world with little hope of returning before his teeth fell out and was no threat or use to anyone.

* * *

Only three kilometres away from the Village did Orochimaru encounter his old teammate who apparently had been waiting the entire day for him. Which meant he wanted that the two of them would be alone, apart from the ANBU guard dogs in the far distance, who wouldn't intervene if Jiraiya decided to kill him.

Turns out Jiraiya didn't want to kill him. Nearly breaking his jaw with a solid uppercut that lifted him several inches of the ground was less expected, but he guessed he deserved it. Orochimaru closed his eyes in nervous anticipation of the follow-up but after a few moments opened them in wary confusion, seeing the Legendary Toad Ninja with a trembling fist that slowly lowered. The very angry expression Jiraiya was holding became reduced to simply angry.

"I always held you as a weirdo, even as your friend. Never figured you for a fuckin psychopath."

"I didn't want-I didn't expect something as terrible to happen…I did it for Tsunade." He sincerely hoped he did it for her, and not out of some sick curiosity to see what would happen.

"Oh right, she turned out to be very happy about her boyfriend turned into a zombie while soaked in his still warm blood. So happy in fact, that she left her home, family and friends and vanished without a trace. Not that surprising really, when someone who called himself a friend does something that horrible to her." Orochimaru remembered the great affection his teammate held for their comrade, ever since they were kids, and even after Tsunade beat Jiraiya to near-death when she caught him spying on her at the Village Hot Springs. And it obviously hadn't gone away after she began dating Dan.

"I'm sorry alright! I know what I did was stupid and foolish, and wrong, and I'm sorry for it."

"That's a decent start, but not even close to repairing the damage you've done." Jiraiya solemnly stated.

"That is a fact."

Not sure how to continue, the two ninjas resigned to staring at each other in silence. After a few minutes, Orochimaru decided to walk past his old friend as there wasn't much else to be said. He managed ten feet before Jiraiya suddenly called out for him.

"Hey Orochimaru. Think fast!"

The object came as fast as a kunai at his face, and for a one moment Orochimaru thought it was a kunai before using his honed reflexes to catch it. And saw that it was a book. One of those paperback ones you would find in any store. He turned to face the cover, that depicted a crudely drawn man chasing a crudely drawn but well endowed woman. The title read _Icha Icha Journey_. He flipped through a few pages, and quickly established this was the kind of book only Jiraiya would read. Going back to the cover, his eyes widened at the fact Jiraiya was credited as the author. He didn't know his friend could write, he saw him having trouble reading the big 'No Men Allowed' signs more than enough times.

"What do you think of my first effort as a writer? Too epic?" Jiraiya's solemn expression was replaced by a hopeful grin.

"It's…certainly reminds me of your qualities." A truthful answer.

"Aha! Don't you be thinking you and Tsunade are going to leave me behind in this boring Village! I will leave the nest one day, but not out of sadness or punishment, but as a universal acclaimed novel writer! Money and women, women with huge breasts in cute little kimonos, shall await me in less than five years time! Just you see and wait!" The Legendary Toad Ninja began to drool and blush at his future prospects.

_The war has gone to his head._ Orochimaru stuffed the book in his traveling bag, and walked onward leaving his old friend behind until he called him out again after another ten feet. Suspicious of another dirty book being thrown his way, he slowly turned.

"Orochimaru, what do you think of the character's name?"

"Naruto? It's…original." And Orochimaru began to pick up pace before his friend began asking questions like 'Did you enjoy the massage saloon chapter?' and 'Nurses or house maids?'.

_Naruto, what an name. I'll be a goner before encountering anyone who's mother was cruel enough to pick that for him._


	4. A Promise of Violence

**Three Years Ago**

A lot has happend in the decades following the exile of the Snake Ninja.

The war against the Hidden Cloud did not turn out to be the struggle for survival as many thought it would be, an ambitious Cloud ninja overthrew the Raikage, stating his reign was ineffectual and impulsive, and swiftly ended the hostilities against the Hidden Leaf.

Sakumo Hatake failed a critical mission against the Hidden Cloud in the last days of the war by saving the lives of his teammates, an act that was more despised by the Village than Orochimaru's attempt at necromancy, that ended in the ninja's suicide out of shame. His son turned into a cold-hearted machine who required the death of a friend in the following war against the Hidden Rock to become human again, aswell been given a ability that would make him famous as the Copy Cat Ninja.

Minato Namikaze became the Fourth Hokage, and while loved by the entire Village, he gave his own love to a young female foreigner with a fierce attitude. Together they had a son named Naruto, after the main character of Minato's mentor novels who's succes was still nonexistant. It didn't discourage Jiraiya of leaving the Village and travel for his 'research'. News articles on public indecency marked his path on a map. But the Fourth Hokage's rule was tragedically cut short by the attack of the Nine-Tailed Beast which cost massive destruction and the lives of countless ninjas, before Minato utilized a sealing jutsu that locked away the Kyuubi at the cost of his own life, within the body of his son in the faith that he would be strong like his father and be able to deal with it.

The Uchiha prodigy Itachi, someone who many believed to be the new Minato and a potential candidate to replace the Third Hokage who had to resume his duties after the loss of the Fourth, suddenly massacred his entire clan, including every man, woman and child except for his younger brother Sasuke whom he inexplicably left alive before leaving the Village and never be seen again.

In both disasters that left a child alone on the world, the Third Hokage commanded that a qualified guardian is to be assigned to the both of them, knowing from his own expierence what giving a adult to depend on would do to the benefit of such children, and fearing what might happen if they allowed them to dwell in isolation. For the Uchiha heir, no one was deemed more suited than the only other ninja in the Village who had the Sharingan ability, Kakashi Hatake. Some of Jonin, mostly female ones, opposed to the idea that a ninja who spends every waking moment reading a dirty book would give proper care to a child.

It was harder to find a warden for the Umuzaki child, as despite the Fourth's last order was to treat him like a hero for containing the demon, many saw the child as the demon itself who could break out of captivity any moment. The fact that the fear-inspired isolation of the boy caused him to commit numerous citywide pranks, did not encourage them to warm their hearts to him. In the end, the only one who volunteerd was the newly promoted Chunin Iruka. This was a suprise, seeing both his parents were killed in the Kyuubi rampage, and some suspected this being a ruse to kill the boy in his sleep. But while they were more than happy to give him the job on that reason, the Hokage had faith in the young man who barely out grown his own childhood.

Though the pranks weren't as dramatic as before when Iruka took Naruto in, the blonde-haired boy remained a terror to those who hated their beautiful gardens being decorated with toiletpaper every two weeks. This forced Iruka to divide his time between teaching and showing up at the door of nearly every Clan in the Village to apologize for his ward's actions.

When Naruto failed his Genin exams, despite all of Iruka's efforts, a Chunin told him that he could still obtain his headband protector, the true sign of a Ninja, if he could preform a stealth & infiltration mission to, like let's say stealing the Forbidden Jutsu Scroll from the Hokage's office. Not only did Naruto manage stealing the scroll and quickly learning a jutsu that would become a future trademark, he also saved his warden's life when the spy revealed his true colours and tried to kill him, which made him obtain the headprotector that he so eagerly wished for.

A few days later, teams were formed from the new generation of Genins who were to be led by a Jonin teacher. Naruto was put in Team 7, along with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno upon whom Naruto held a crush, no matter how many times she would punch him in the head. She held one of her own on the dark and mysterious Uchiha heir, who was too consumed with wrath to notice that the girls in his class were fighting a daily bloody battle for his attention. Their mentor became Kakashi Hatake, who preferred to keep an eye on the child who remained emotionally shut, and to overlook the progression of the Kyuubi Host that some still considered a threat.

One man named Danzo constantly called for Naruto to be handed over to him, so he could turn a worthless ninja into a weapon that would give them an enormous advantage against the other Hidden Villages in a upcoming war. The Hokage told him repeatedly to shut up.

Despite a rocky start where the poor teamwork showed, Team 7 exceeded beyond expectations when a simple C-ranked escort mission turned into a A-ranked battle to defend a fishing village against a Missing-nin known as the Demon of the Bloody Mist and his henchmen the Demon Brothers that climaxed in a epic conflict on top of a bridge-in-construction. Kakashi and Team 7 came out victorious, a feat that the Copy Cat Ninja found so impressive that upon return to the Village he elected his Team to participate in the upcoming Chunin Exams, despite most Genins taking part were much older with more expierence.

After a long and dangerous first two exams that unlocked Sasuke's Sharingan, inspired Sakura to no longer being the weak chain in her team and become stronger, and made Naruto to be in mortal fear of the insane Jonin Anko who enacted a campaign of terror against him and his teacher, the third and final exams would be commencing tomorrow to see who would obtain the Chunin rank.

Only Naruto and Sasuke were to continue after the preliminary matches, but Sakura was content to have reconciled with a old friend. Both rivals had trained hard for tomorrow, Sasuke with his guardian Kakashi and Naruto with the pressured Toad Hermit, who Naruto insisted on calling the Perverted Hermit after catching him doing 'research' at the Hot Springs.

Tonight all was peaceful in the Village. All but the Sand Ninja who's heart was obessed with death and causing the deaths of others to quell his pain. But mostly everyone else went to sleep peacefully.

* * *

Outside the Village however, four men in dark cloaks and straw hats overlooked the slumbering Village, with a quite of lot of evil intentions in their gaze. They were waiting for their local agent to arrive, and one of the men especially hated waiting despite his love for eternal art.

"Where is the mongrel. We did not have him sprung out of captivity so he could take his time." A low and gruff voice came from the one who appeared to be a hunchbacked giant who's chin was close to the ground.

"Have patience. Or I will kill you." A deeper voice came from the masked one, who's eyes were black orbs with green pupils.

"Oh just stop for Jashin's sake you fuckin bastards. You're getting me all riled up, and I really want save my energy for tomorrow. There's no fun in killing old carcasses like yourselves." The third had taken of his concealing straw hat that revealed a young man with long slicked-back grey hair who was holding a massively oversized triple-bladed red scythe over his shoulder.

The fourth man prevented a potential fight that would certainly alert every Hidden Village in a hundred miles, by pointing out the agent had arrived, with the items they've requested in return for his freedom.

Mizuki has been a spy for their organisation a long time, ever since he learned the true meaning of power. Which was that you could never have enough. And in a Village where your own interests needed to be sacrificed for the interest of the greater good, a man to had to realign his affiliation to something more profitable. But now he was afraid of his masters. With reason.

Men like those whom he stood before now, were used to men like Mizuki doing things for them without question. And despite having brought them what they desired from a heavily crowded and guarded facility at risk of someone seeing through his disguise, he was terrified his escape was more trouble than they were acceptable of, especially as he had failed in the plot to make the Kyuubi Host an easyier target by making the Village turn against him. Mizuki also never met one of them in person before, his contact having always been the Uchiha defector who despite his menacing gaze, Mizuki knew him to be professional enough not to start killing people out of annoyance. Not these four monsters, both in appearance and mind.

One of the more human-like members smiled, which if it was an attempt to put Mizuki at ease, end up doing a horrible job at it.

"You did a good job, hmm. I trust everything we required you have brought us. And if you didn't, we will hunt you down and feed you to our resident shark. Understand, hmm?"

He patted Mizuki on the shoulder, that made the Leaf traitor tremble even more as the touch felt like a spider crawling up his spine.

"Now go along and run for your life. Tomorrow, Konoha won't be a safe place to be, hmm."

Mizuki nodded, and after a nervous glance on the others, he leapt up into the nearest tree and began to make his way to the next country as humanely possible. They stared after him in unison before the social turned to his comrades and grinned.

"Okay, gentlemen you know the drill. Place your bets and see who knows my art the best, hmmm."

"10. You're a triggerhappy motherfucker, Deidara."

"30. You always go for 30, being as predictable as your art."

"A full minute or beyond. You're sadistic enough for it."

After 15 seconds Hidan lost his bet, who cursed profanity as always. After 45 it was Sasori, who grunted in disaproval. In the end it was Kakuzu who won when finally after two minutes, they saw a short flash in the far distance, and the soft echo of an fading explosion.

"Pay up." 500 ryou bills were changed among owners, and Kakuzu reveled in his own art. That of making money.

"I'm suprised Itachi and Kisame ain't here. It's his fuckin Village afterall, would make things easyier than rely on worthless cunts like Two Minutes for information."

"They are to keep the Toad Hermit occupied. We have enough trouble with those present without him aiding them. None of you forget we are here for the Tailed Beasts and their hosts. Kill as many others as you like, but they are to remain intact for extraction."

None of them went to sleep as each had a ton of work to do, and despite each also having the ego the size of mountains, they understood they would be making an error in being careless and underestimate the Hidden Leaf.


	5. All Along The Watchtowers Part 1

The day begun with battle and bruises, all in the name of friendly competition as the remaining contestants fought to prove their ability as a Chunin in front of the gathered Kages, the Daiymos and the typical hungry for blood crowds consisting out of local and foreign ninjas and the civilians who provide ninjas with their bread and butter.

The Exams were nearing an end after two hours of watching the young fighters go through a series of different battles. Some were one-sided scraps that were ended so quick and fiercely ended that they looked like disciplinary acts of an elder against a unruly child. Other battles took longer, and displayed amazing combinations of strategic maneuvers and tactical finesse. And there battles where all need for show or skill was forgotten and was decided by who could stand on his feet the longest and punch the hardest.

There were embarassing defeats that led to life-changing insights, even more embarassing victories that led to unaware affections, and outcomes that made rivals grow in respect for each other, just before being carried to the hospital to fix those bones snapped in three different places.

Now the final match of the day began, and the final contestants were big suprises to most, who expected a matchup between more likely individuals such as the last of the Uchihas, or the Hyuuga Genius. They all fell however, at the hands of the last two who ironically seemed worlds appart, but in truth were almost blood brothers.

Gaara of the Sand, a terror feared by his own people for good reasons, and Naruto Umuzaki, Number One Loudest Ninja, feared only by gardeners and Public Works.

"Are the both you ready to c-gh-commence?" Hayate Gekko hated his current condition with a vengeance. A common cold he caught during a recent mission has kept him unable to catch a good sleep for weeks. No help from his girlfriend either, who considered his inability to sleep a benefit for her, making what nightly hours he managed to snooze through being disrupted by a adrenalin-pumped ANBU ninja who couldn't be scared off with a few coughs. He barely could contain his smirk, before returning to reality.

"Believe it!" Naruto's trademark line was not appreciated by Gaara, who managed to narrow his eyes even further.

"This will be the last time you will utter that phrase. The only sound from your voice in the coming moments shall be screams for mercy. Which you won't get."

Naruto tried to think of a witty reply, but the violent deaths of the two Grass Ninjas who tried to intimidate Gaara, along with mind-paralyzing fear, kept interferring with the attempts to further anger him.

"Get ready, set...begin!" Hayate made an inmediate leap backwards to bring himself harm's way, as waves of sand met waves of Naruto shadow clones head on. The sand proved more effective, as most clones only had a faint expression of terror upon being crushed and than exploding in white smoke.

Naruto kept making more clones while using their numbers to hide among them, who now began throwing shuriken and kunais at Gaara in the hopes the sand was too busy beating their collective hides to form a effective defense of their user. Gaara stopped the various throwing blades easily, as he disposed of the clones seconds later. Now that most of the initial wave had been destroyed, seeking out the original was getting easyier.

_This might be harder than I thought. Getting out of this alive, that is._

_

* * *

  
_

A fair distance away from the stadium where the Exams were being held, a pair of Chunins were trying to catch the results of the last match by intently listening to the distance explosions and screams, from the top of their guard tower. Even at a time of peace like this every watchtower, there being one every kilometre along the great wall that surrounded Konoha, must be manned by two Chunin-level ninjas at all times.

Not that those on duty were understanding of the requirement, despite logic dicating two being the minimum as it is harder to kill two guards in silence than just one. And with the Chunin Exams, it would take the combined forces of two Hidden Villages to be stage a succesful attack, and a force that size would not remain unnoticed in their opinion.

"It sounds like the Sand kid is winning, Tori. The screaming is getting more intensive, I think." It was hard to differ the battle sounds, most of them being high-pitched.

"Bullshit, Shinku. No Suna brat with a jar of dirt is gonna beat a local boy, even if it is the demon kid."

"Kid got no skills. He failed the damned Genin exams for crying out loud."

"So? He learned a Kage-level jutsu to prove his instructors wrong, I think you never got over him slipping past you that night at the Hokage Tower, and beat the Demon of the Mist in his first real mission."

"First off, I wasn't on duty that night, Genma was. Second, the brat was part of a four-man team, that had Copy Cat Kakashi and the last Uchiha in it. I doubt they stood back and ate dangos in that fight."

The two ninjas further argued, their tension-easing but attention-distracting discussion adding to the combination of factors like boredom, lack of paranoia in their own homeland, and having the idea that nearing threats were to be bigger and louder than the tiny white spiders crawling up the side of the tower, to anticipate the attack that would follow in a few minutes. Not that it would be their blame, at seven other watchtowers the spiders had infiltrated without being detected by the Leaf Chunin, and were ready to begin their part of the plan.

Up in the sky, above any human's ninja visual range, a great white owl was making slow circles above Konoha, it's master and creator standing on top while controlling his other creations by remote. His part in the plan was vital, though his pleasure was spoiled at the prospect of having his art be among the preformances of other less-talented artists and not be a standalone show. However, he had one privilege he was certainly going to enjoy, and that was making the opening shot. And as he worked his hands on what appeared as a big plumb bird-like creature of clay, he was making sure it would be a blast.

* * *

The fight between Naruto and Gaara had seemed to be one-sided, before the blonde brat began readjusting his strategy and used his clones in a more strategic senses, as tactical-wise he was still screwed.

Five man-teams began charging Gaara from every possible direction, and whenever a team was destroyed a different one came closer, leaving a gap for another reinforcing team to exploit. Using himself as bait to attract most of the Sand ninja's attention away from the diversionary and easily destroyed clone army, Naruto had managed for his clones to get near enough for his next tactic to have effect.

"Tajuu Kage Bushin!" Over a hundred shadow clones instantly popped into existence around the original, the sign of yet another impulsive human wave attack that Naruto had done several times. By now Gaara caught on aswell, and was ready for it when before Naruto and his clone reinforcements were able to stage an attack, a huge tidal wave of sand rose from the stadium floor and crashed down upon them, destroying nearly all of the clones upon collision. Only a few clones who huddled around their summoner managed to stay intact as the sand came down and covered them.

Given a few seconds, Naruto could have quickly digged his way out of it and create a new army. Gaara did not give him those few seconds.

"Sabuku Soso!" A ripple went through the sand, crushing every foreign obstacle. A wide-eyed Naruto with only a arm and half his head out of the sand couldn't even scream, when the shockwave hit him and than vanished into white smoke.

"What the..." Gaara realized his mistake, and turned around, just in time to see a real Naruto smashing his way through the weakened sand shield and deliver an crude chakra-empowered punch into the Sand Ninja's face.

The protective layer of sand Gaara kept on his body at all times absorbed most of the force, but his jaw still rattled with him stumbling a few steps backward, a feat only the Taijutsu expert Rock Lee managed a month earlier. Before Gaara crushed his arm and leg, and with that any hope of remaining a ninja. Too suprised for anything but a reflexive defense, the sand formed a thick tentacle that smacked Naruto in the chest and sent him flying across the stadium.

Just moments before painfully landing, Naruto grinned at the prospect of having delivered a solid hit to the invulnerable-seeming Sand ninja. If he kept this current rate up, he'll have Gaara's ass properly kicked in five hours. Assuming he didn't get killed before that time.

* * *

With the watchtowers manned and most of the population having gone to the stadium to watch the local prankster getting the shit beaten out of him, there was little in the way of security in the Village itself.

A fact that worried the ANBU ninja, who was part of the few along with a larger number of Chunin kept patrolling the various village districts while the majority of his collagues watched over the Hokage and the foreign dignitaries at the stadium, or were abroad to watch the borders. He could not understand his superiors disregarding the safety of the Hidden Leaf by having one ANBU ninja watch over the market and shopping centres, despite any foreign ninja having the perfect opportunity to leap around and throw explosive-tagged kunais at random.

His anxiety was further increased by the distant and faint sound of rattling, which gave him a familair but uneasy feeling.

Hence his relief at spotting a full ANBU squad reinforcing him. They were in the hooded robes that Konoha ANBU normally wore when undercover or among the public, to prevent unnecessairly scaring people with their combat fatigues and backstrapped katanas. Not that ninjas were especially frightend by people in odd uniforms with large blades, but the trademark animal masks make it a unnerving combination. As the four ninjas approached him from the rooftops, he detected the rattling sound again, but much closer. Like puppets were roaming nearby. A Chunin gave word a hour ago that Kankuro of Suna, the only puppeteer he could imagine being even near the Village, lost his fight against Shino Aburame. Old-fashioned paranoia had him peer down to the streets, suspecting Kankuro not dealing well with his loss, maybe ready to do something drastic.

But no trace of the Suna Ninja or his puppet, and yet the sound was getting louder and closer, until it suddenly stopped. The ANBU turned to his collagues, who suprisingly had lined up around him as if they were very interested in his activity.

"What's the matter." The shortest one asked, presumably the acting captain of the squad as he did not recognize the voice, and captains usually wore light-coloured robes to distinguish themselves from their subordinates.

"I believe a Suna puppeteer is near, but unsure on his intentions. Possibly hostile." The sound going away so sudden, made the ANBU ninja nervous as if the puppet was waiting in some kind of ambush.

"They are hostile, trust me."

"How can you be sure, sir?" He turned around to hear the answer, and his animal mask was instantly shattered by the three kunais flying into his face at near pointblank range. The two first impaled his eyes, while the third stuck itself into his forehead and pierced his brain.

The 'ANBU Captain' made a simple hand gesture that signaled one of the other 'ANBU' to quickly pick up the body, and vanish with it with the intent to hide it. When it returned, it's hands formed seals for a simple disguise technique, and one 'poof' later the same ANBU ninja who's real body was being left to rot somewhere undiscovered, was now standing guard again and ready to fool any but the most suspicious of Leaf ninjas.

Sasori than turned to watch how his other 'toys' were doing at the other nearby outlooks, which was quite well actually. Some of the Chunins were more perceptive and faster to react to the sudden danger, but those who tried to leap away were quickly intercepted by backup 'teams'. And they also replaced the dead Leaf ninjas with one of their own.

They wouldn't stand up to an actual investigation, the inability to speak would betray them quickly along with the rattling sounds whenever they moved, but they were only required to uphold the facade of everything being peaceful and quiet in the center of the Village for several more minutes. Which meant waiting. Sasori despised waiting.

* * *

At the stadium, in the upper spectator booth special-constructed for resident and visiting Kages, the Third Hokage of Konoha was observing the fight below with the Fourth Kazekage of Suna at his side. Sarutobi did not like the man. It was rather regular for most Kages to be strict and vicious men as their Villages required the meanest dog to become the pack leader, but the Kazekage took a special place by loudly commenting why Naruto was not doing a better job at killing his youngest son. Even knowing Gaara's reputation, and his father's disregard for him and consider him nothing but an expendable weapon, it was quite shocking to hear it from the man's own mouth.

"Is that Genin of yours even aware of whom he is fighting? All I see are feints and attacks that belong on the nursery grounds. It will take more to kill Gaara, permanently." The words were more grunted than actual spoken.

"I'm afraid, Kazekage, Naruto is a expectional ninja. He will not kill for any reason but to protect the lives of his comrades. Even if it means his own." Sarutobi replied.

"Than death will come for him quickly. Typical for Konoha to feed such meaningless delusions to their ninjas." Sarutobi chosen to ignore the Kazekage's deliberate insults, who's legendary disdain for anything but his own views was unlikely to be changed. Instead he went over to those whom he himself have done extraordinary at these Exams, despite losing or winning.

The young Nara heir was the most certain for a promotion to Chunin. Faced with a superior opponent and seemingly holding no real motivation to win, his victory was the result of a calculated series of moves, as if he was playing shogi instead of being in a fight. Even his intentional surrender did not disguise a set of skills and intelligence befitting a Chunin or even a Jonin.

Than there was Shino Aburame, nearly the equal of Shikamaru as a tactician, and kept a focused overview of the situation despite coming close to death upon Kankuro using the highly dangerous poison cloud attack, something he was almost disqualified for as it could had potentially harmed the public. But despite nearing death, Shino followed his strategy to the end and defeated his opponent. Thankfully his father was able to cleanse the poison from Shino's veins. While his social skills needed some work, Sarutobi could name enough active Jonin who had the same problem.

Before his thoughts could wonder off to the third potential candidate for promotion, his personal guard Raido tapped him on the shoulder to alert him of the arrival of his son Asuma, and Kakashi. From their looks they didn't come up here for a pleasant chat.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked in a calm voice, knowing the Kazekage would have his ears open for any trouble that could be an advantage for him and Suna.

"Could be, Hokage." Asuma has not adressed him as 'father' since he left the ancestral home out of a conflict over, something Sarutobi hoped he'd grow out of as part of his puberty but 15 years was becoming a very long time.

* * *

"Why doesn't either of those fuckers die already? If I actually paid money for this shit, I'd kill everyone, even without orders." To emphasize his words, Hidan slammed the scythe down hard on the floor, with enough force to make cracks in the concrete.

"Be silent, you're drawing unnecessary attention." The spectators around them had managed to move at least five seats away from the pair, despite the stadium being filled to the brim.

Lacking the strategic and infiltration capabilities of their collagues, Hidan and Kakuzu were sent on ahead to the stadium to await the signal before moving in on the Tailed Beasts Hosts. Kakuzu was against it knowing how Hidan tends to get into a bloodlust at the merest push, and they were setting him within a stadium filled with enemy ninjas to watch two powerhouses go at it. A clear recipe for disaster. But since an actual disaster was moments away, there was little point in making it a real problem.

Below at the stadium grounds, the fight was nearing a critical point as it became a battle of staminas and chakra-reserves. For Gaara, who was used to end his fights within less than a minute, that meant trouble as it became more and more difficult to summon his sand to crush the infinite-seeming supply of shadow clones who's tactics began to become more complex than simply rushing him. Naruto was beginning to actually seem to have a decent chance at winning. Those who had thought of him as a threat or a nuisance, forgot their grudges and began chanting his name with a evergrowing number of people joining in. Even if he was the host to the Nine-Tailed Beast, and a terrorist-pranker, he was one of their own.

Everyone intently watched the battle, as it looked like it would be decided in the next few minutes. All except Kakuzu who's gaze fixed on the sky was and knew exactly when it would end.

"Hello there. Enjoying the fight?" When Kakuzu lowered his eyes, a squad of Chunin, Jonins and ANBU had assembled right in front of him and Hidan, who was grinning at this welcome distraction.

"Silent types, huh?" The speaker had a familair face, and if bingo book memory served, he was Kakashi Hatake, the infamous Copy Cat Ninja. Kakuzu was not aware of any bounty having been put on his head. Rumours say he killed anyone who dared.

But the bearded ninja next to Kakashi was a different story, Kakuzu instantly recognized the sash at his waist.

"You are Sarutobi Asuma. One of the Twelve Ninja Guardians. The price on your head is 30 million ryou." Hidan next to him muttered something about how repulsive the eternal greed for money not being put away in any kind of situation was.

Asuma himself did not change his relaxed expression, despite everyone but himself and Kakashi tensing for a battle at those words. "Was that meant as a threat?"

"No, not a threat. A fact. But you will have to wait until we accomplish our mission here. If you run away before we are finished, I will kill your every relative and loved one. Understood?" Kakuzu hoped Asuma would stay put, tracking down second-degree cousins was a real bitch when he could be making money.

Asuma remained in his undisturbed pose, but a close observer could have seen his left eye twitch at the word 'loved one'.

"And what is your miss-" Kakashi tried to question Kakuzu further but was interrupted by Hidan, who's patience had run thin and his bloodlust thick, raised his scythe and charged the nearest person, one of the Chunin.

Battle-honed reflexes took over, and before Hidan was halfway to his target, he had three kunais stuck in his chest. But to the Chunin's shock it did not stop Hidan who barely seemed to notice the lethal injuries, and drove the scythe upwards and sliced open the entire torso in one quick move.

As blood and broken off ribs were sent flying, Hidan made a turn and brought down the triple blades down on the next in line, one of the ANBU. This ninja reacted faster, bringing his unsheated katana to block the scythe in mid-swing, and a chakra-burst in his arms pushed it away from Hidan's hands. Defenseless, an easy target for the ANBU who stabbed his sword through the enemy's heart.

"Ow, that hurt you motherfuckin shit!" Taking advantage of the confusion, Hidan flexed his wrist and the scythe that had been tumbling away in the air was instantly pulled back by the attached rope. The ANBU managed to dodge the scythe as it came back, but too late to prevent Hidan from grabbing his swordhand that was still holding onto the blade in Hidan's chest, and pull him into the path of the returning scythe, impaling the ninja through his back.

Asuma and Kakashi assumed fighting positions while the nearby spectators fled their seats in panic.

But as much as Hidan's rampage seemed the imminent danger, Kakuzu sitting calmly in his seat was a sign of him being even more dangerous than the unstoppable madman who now fought two Chunins at the same time, screaming his head off with high-pitched laughter as the scythe flew in every direction and angle to attack his new opponents. Blood of Hidan and his victims were all over the floor and seats.

Further away the Hokage looked worried at the developing carnage, even as more ninjas were making their way to reinforce his son and Kakashi. The Kazekage next to him was hoping that whoever these fools were, that they were good enough to take out some more Leaf ninjas and push the balance a little more to the Hidden Sand.

Few gave attention to the stadium fight, where Gaara and Naruto were reaching the end of their struggle, exhausted and battered. The screams and sounds from the spectator booths were not even audible through the blood pumping in their ears, and their sights set only on each other. Naruto yelled as he and the last dozen of shadow clones charged Gaara, who used what remained of his chakra to keep his sand active as his weapon, having mere moments to try and take out the stubborn Leaf ninja before it all of it was spent.

* * *

On top of the great white owl circling above the stadium at a lower altitude than before with Sasori having taken care of most of the outlooks, Deidara was overlooking the situation below with the eye visor that magnified his vision extraordinarly. And he was pissed.

"Those scene stealing bastards, thinking they can distract everyone from my entry, hmm. They can think again." His hands had finally finished molding his speciality of the day, the C3 destroyer-type bomb.

Deidara tossed the clay figure into the air, before summoning a enlargement jutsu. The little handheld statue was instantly changed into a giant bird-like creature that suspended itself with mighty wings.

"Go and do your beauty, hmm." Deidara whispered.

The clay creature folded it's wings, and inmediatly it fell like a stone with great speed to the surface, making a whistling noise as it went down. Seconds went past before it neared the center of the stadium, and Deidara remembered they wanted the Tailed Beasts alive, not all over the place in small scorched bits.

_Pity_, Deidara thought before he activated the detonation seal. "Katsu!"

Almost no one spotted the white bird from above falling down on them, their attention occupied by the two violent brawls in front of them. Even less anticipated the sudden wave of light and heat that engulfed the stadium. The Hokage, Kakashi, Asuma, even Gaara and Naruto ceased in the middle of their respective attacks, to stand frozen at the wide-spreading fireball that descended upon them like the sun itself had fallen from the heavens.

"That goddamn show-stealer." Hidan muttered as he put his scythe into the head of a distracted Chunin, seconds before the shockwave struck the stadium and swept everyone of their feet and get lost in a cyclone of deafening noise, cloth-ripping wind and a unbearable scorching heat.


	6. All Along The Watchtowers Part 2

Shinku and Tori were agreeing that they should cease their discussion before their friendship was destroyed by it, when they saw a giant fireball erupting above the stadium. The resulting devastating shockwave sent up a dust cloud that covered most of the infrastructure from sight, but even at this distance the damage was clear.

"By the Gods..." Shinku said, staring at the utter ravage.

"Raise the alarm! Call for medic-nin and ANBU to respond inmediatly!" Tori as the older Chunin shouted the commands to his friend who nodded and was about leave when the other Chunin turned around, and Shinku saw the clay spider on his back.

"What the hell-" He had little time to ponder, before the spider began to illuminate and grow in size.

Grinning at the display of art that turned the stadium into a half-collapsed ruin, Deidara deemed it was time for his other surprises to reveal their brilliance to an unsuspecting audience.

"Katsu!"

Explosions erupted at four different watchtowers, and three more smaller ones occured some distance away as several Chunin had left their post to help assist at the stadium. Meaning whoever was left after his masterpiece, would have little or no aid against his collagues. With his main contribution for today concluded, Deidara resigned himself to looking for some more targets until one of his comrades would overcome his ego and ask for assistance, which he may or may not give, depending on his mood. Which was pretty good right now.

* * *

At the stadium sections of the roof had collapsed, bringing down debris of massive proportions, and the resulting dust clouds made visibility zero, in addition to inhibiting the lungs of the survivors. The contestant booth, an observer platform built within the stadium walls that was left largely intact as it had been out of the shockwave's area effect, had two Genin trying out to make sense of what just happend.

When Hidan attacked, the other Genin present inmediatly ran for the spectator area, leaving behind those who had been too injured to be of real use. Despite the hurt to their self-esteem, they understood the rationality and had waited until the explosion rocked the stadium, with no clue of what has occured. They attempted to go up the stairs to the spectator areas, but debris had blocked off the entrance, and neither were in the condition to clear it or go down to the stadium and try to climb or leap up.

"Can you see anything?" Rock Lee asked. Having been seen by many as the strongest of the new generation of Leaf ninjas, Lee possessed strength and speed with few rivals and even fewer who were superior.

If he had been granted a different opponent at the Preliminaries, his victory would be ensured. But fate brought him in the path of a monster named Gaara. After a long struggle in which Lee used every ability and every ounce of his Fire of Youth at his disposal, Gaara used his sand to grab and crush most of the bones in the left-side limbs of Lee's body. And as a result, the medic-nin informed him that the damage done to his nerves and bone structure was too great to repair them to a degree that was not even close to his old level.

His teacher, teammates and friends told him that he should be fortunate enough to be alive, none who fought Gaara could make that claim until him. But this was not about living or winning, it was about being rendered useless for the one thing he worked so hard to accomplish. Being a respected ninja. Now he lived on the wellfare of Gai, who seemed as much troubled by Lee's destroyed hopes, but kept a smile and promised his protege that his ability would return.

"I-I see...devastation, and injured people. Casualties, many. But there's too much chaos to make a estimate." Hinata Hyuuga replied, her Byakugan piercing through the concrete and dust.

It was not the first time in her life that she wished didn't have those cursed eyes. Not because they saw everything, but the name and the weight it carried. The Hyuuga Clan did not want it's daughters to do their best, they needed to be perfect at everything. Being underachieving at even one aspect of the Clan was to be looked down upon and taking years to redeem. Her timid and shy nature, insecurity at nearly anything, and shown less apitude for the traditional Juken fighting style than a Branch member like her cousin Neji or even her younger sister Hanabi. All combined with a immensely strong but unanswered affection, made Hinata the pariah of the Hyuuga Clan and the only expectation from her was to find a decent Branch member and continue the bloodline.

That all changed at the Preliminaries. In fear that some sick deity would put her against Neji, who despite being family was the one person she feared most, she had minor relief when her opponent was to be a Rain ninja by the name of Shigure. At first she was confident to win, especially when the one she cared for most, cheered on and showed his faith in her ability. That gave her more strength than any compliment from her father would have. But her skill proved quickly to be insufficient against the uncountable numbers of thick metal needles fired from the umbrellas used by Shigure. Only a few hit her, in non-vital areas, but those were enough to transfer a organ-damaging poison into her veins.

Soon Hinata began to cough up blood, and felt too weak to stand. Shigure mocked her status as a Hyuuga, and Neji looked down from the balcony upon her with a satisfied smirk, reveling in the hatred he held for the Main Family. She dropped to a knee, and was too announce her surrender when she suddenly heard Naruto call out. He promised Shigure to have him pay for hurting Hinata. That changed everything. Forgetting the pain, the sickness, the limbs that felt like lead and the lungs that burned in her throat, she charged forward, taking Shigure by suprise who only could fire off a badly aimed volley of needles. Half of them missed, but the rest struck Hinata in the shoulder and thigh, enough to immobilize most ninjas. But she carried on her attack, and soon she was in range of Shigure who could not avoid or dodge the following Juken attack of nearly 40 seperate strikes against his chakra points. As most of them were aimed at his chest and head, the Rain ninja fell hard on the stone floor at the last strike.

Hinata took in her victory with relish, having shown the evidence to Naruto that she was not helpless and worthy of his love, and to her father that she was not weak. Reflecting on this with a smile, she than dropped from exhaustion and losing consciousness near instanteously.

Hayate declared Hinata to be the winner, and inmediatly medic-nin brought her to the hospital where they discovered the poison had caused internal bleeding and more damage. She survived, and according to the medic-nin she'd make a full recovery, but that would take a half year at least and exclude her from the Third Exams. Even a month later, Hinata still felt weak and fragile, as if any sudden move would rupture her intestines. But all of that was forgotten as she watched the fight between Naruto and Gaara, and held her heart tight. Now she was almost crushing it to death, using her Byakugan to look for him and so far had no luck. She feared the worst...

"Hello! Is anyone alive up there!" A voice called out from the stadium below the balcony where from the contestants watched the fights. Hinata and Lee made their way to the balcony as quickly as Lee's medical crutch could allow.

"Yes, up here!" Hinata deactivated her Byakugan, as help had arrived.

"That's good! Catch!" A vague large object suddenly flew through the dust clouds towards the balcony, and Hinata pushed Lee down in time to duck as it sailed right over them and landed with a cracking thud on the floor. The two Genin turned to see what it was, and gasped in shock.

It was Genma Shiranui, one of the Chunins who helped with the Exams. His eyes were dimly staring into the distance, which along with the large bloody gashes in his torso was the clear sign that he was dead. Killed.

"Ya know, I was almost afraid that worthless shit Deidara had damn nearly killed everyone." A nightmare jumped on the balcony railings, holding a rope-linked scythe from which crimson liquid was dripping. The dark cloak he wore around his body was torn and ripped, blood gushed from a dozen different wounds and streamed down his body in continuous streams and had a kunai stuck in his chest. The most frightening aspect of the man was his eyes, bloodshot and wide as if he was on some narcotic, staring at the worried Genin.

"Tsk, just my fuckin luck to run into the Paralympic section of the stadium. Oh well, Jashin hates those who complain when prey is thrown their way." Hidan roared like a insane beast and leapt towards the Genin. Lee tried to push himself in the madman's path to protect Hinata, but found himself thrown to the side by her.

The Hyuuga activated her Byakugan, took a fighting pose and charged Hidan despite feeling she would throw up the intents of her stomach any second. She ducked under the scythe when it swung in a attempt to decapitate her, and pulled out the bloodied kunai from Hidan's chest so she would have a weapon to defend herself with.

Hidan swung around with a closed fist aimed at the female ninja as she now was behind him, and missed as her eyes detected the attack in time, and hit his back chakra points as hard as she could.

Not enough to bring him down, Hinata leapt out of the way as the large scythe came down upon her and cracked open the floor. She rolled to the wall, and caught her breath in difficult gasps as her heart and lungs had not yet healed enough for combat. Knowing his speed, and having a limited time before her wounded muscules gave up on her, the Hyuuga charged Hidan again in a final attempt to end the fight before he outlasted her.

She threw the kunai into his leg to slow him down, and went with her hand for his heart for in the hopes he was human enough for that to stop him. But as slow and arrogant the follower of Jashin was, he saw her tactic after establishing her method of attack. He took a step backwards, and twisted his body so the fingers meant to stop his heart grazed along his chest harmlessly. Than he snatched the girl's wrist to pull her off balance, before letting go and using his free hand to go for her throat, hold on tight and use his strength to ram her against the wall.

Hinata felt her wounds opening among the wave of agony caused by the impact, and coughed a handful of blood from her lungs. Her attacker grinned, and brought her closer to his face until he could stick out his unnatural long tongue and lick off the blood that was pouring down from the corner of her mouth. She winced, the repulsive sensation of his tongue and saliva across her skin making her shiver, which only aroused Hidan even more.

"You know, little bitch.." He brought his face closer to hers, speaking slowly into her ears as Hinata tried to move her head away "..I promised my comrades to forgo any sacrifices to my Lord Jashin until the agreed time but you're so sweet and feisty, I'm willing to let them go f-" A movement in the corner of his eye made Hidan drop the girl and turn, but too late to stop the powerful downward kick directed at his head, which smashed it right into the concrete of the floor.

Lee dropped back to the floor, gasping from the exhaustion from something what used to be a easy move, and the pain of relying on a limb that was still fractured. He tried to walk over to Hinata, but stumbled to the floor as he had thrown away the crutch and no longer could support himself. Clenching his teeth, he tried to crawl towards his comrade when he heard Hidan recovering from the attack.

Spitting out blood and chunks of concrete from his mouth, the immortal ninja was in a extremely pissed off mood. Leaning on the scythe to stand up, he glared down on the two fallen Genin who had no more strength to repell him. He kicked Lee in the chest, sending him sliding to the other side of the room before turning his gaze on Hinata, who tried to stand up but couldn't regain the strength to do so.

"You shits, you motherfuckin shits! I tried to be merciful. Only allowing myself some minor entertainment before ending your worthless fuckin lives." Hidan raised the scythe to his shoulder. "But now, I'm going to enjoy this to the fullest. Hell is going to be a fun park after I'm through with you, while Hero Boy over there can watch and see what his fuckin heroics have accomplished." The weapon was raised above his head with all intention to bring it down Hinata who closed her eyes, when suddenly he was interrupted by a loud call of attention.

"Get away from her, you son of a bitch!" On the railing, a blonde-haired boy in a orange torn jumpsuit was standing and looking Hidan defiantly. Bruises, blood and scratches were all over his body, but Naruto was ready to take on a army if they threatened his friends.

"Oh fuckin wonderful. Another hero." With a flick of his wrist the scythe flew out like a guided projectile towards Naruto, who did not expect the enemy to be so fast.

"Naruto!" Hinata cried out.

The triple blades tore into Naruto's chest, before he vanished and was replaced by a chunk of concrete. Realizing his mistake, Hidan recalled the scythe, but it was too late to prevent a horde of Naruto shadow clones who had been lying in wait to grab it, while others ran towards Hidan and his intended victims.

Surprised and with a weapon who's return was prevented by ten clones hanging onto it for dear life, Hidan could do little when four other clones in rapid succession kicked him in the groin, his abdomen, his throat and finally his face. As the immortal stumbled backwards under the barrage of kicks and punches, the final two of the many Narutos grabbed Lee and Hinata and quickly carried them away from the room.

Seeing his victims getting away, Hidan roared and pulled out one of the spikes he used for his rituals. Four swift strikes later and the clones had poofed away into smoke. He than threw it at the clones holding his scythe, their straight line-up making it possible for the spike to get all of them in a single shot.

His weapon free, he launched it at the retreating Genin. He had to make a choice as he had seconds before they would leap down from the balcony and from his direct range, and one or two of them would be a clone and thus wasted effort. Hidan choose for the Naruto carrying the girl, her less critical condition making the use of a clone more likely and still content on having her pay for her male comrade's foolish bravery.

So he was surprised when the weapon caught up, and sank it's triple blades into the boy's right shoulder, drawing blood, and he didn't vanish into smoke. The girl once again cried out his name. Despite the clear agony he was, Naruto pulled himself out of the weapon's clutch and leapt over the balcony to avoid another assault and bring his friends to safety.

"You bastards, don't run away from Jashin's wrath!" Hidan retracted the scythe back into his hands and was about to go right after them, if not something invisible that was faster than Lee and incredibly more powerful, struck him in the chest. The force of the blow was so great that the immortal went through two separate concrete walls, until he was out of the stadium and had still enough velocity to land on the rooftop of some nearby residences.

It took a minute before even his incredible healing powers were able to make him stand up again, his head in a unnatural angle. He quickly snapped back into position with his hands, but the shock of the attack laid upon him was still dazzling.

"Wha..what the fuck was that!" Hidan yelled, before his answer was given by the person who landed in front of him.

"You thought you could trifle with those who possess the Fire of Youth, even as they were weakenend. You thought wrong, and now your cowardly acts against our students shall be avenged by the Legendary Green Beast of the Hidden Leaf Village. ME! MAITO GAI!" To emphasize his point, Gai raised his thumbs up, winked with one eye and smiled with teeth so shiny they blinked.

Hidan stood in utter open-jawed shock at his opponent, unable to say anything but a basic expression.

"Fuck me!"

"No, I won't. Even if I was attracted to young men who have the Fire of Youth burning within, we are still going to fight as I would not have any romantical interest in one as cowardly as you!" Gai changed his pose to one of contempt, mistaking Hidan's facial expression as one of holding a broken heart at being rejected by a God of Youth like Gai knew he was.

"I don't think he meant that literal, Gai." Almost as instantly as Gai, three more Jonin joined his side. Kakashi on his right while Asuma and the Jonin teacher of Team 8, Kurenai Yuhi, flanked his left.

The four most renown Jonin of the Leaf stared down the lone enemy who had threatened their students, killed comrades and likely was an accomplice to the mysterious attack that caused the explosion in the stadium, killing and injuring likely hundreds. They sent all the Chunins they could find after the explosion to help with the rescue operations, as Hidan was too dangerous to risk anymore lives.

Hidan took the time to clear his mind from Gai, promising himself that killing the ninja with the fucked up haircut and eyebrows would propably restore his sanity. Despite his ego and faith in Jashin never allowing him to die, he did not like the odds as the four Jonin would cover each other and never allow him an opportunity to strike.

"I see you're in need of help, hmm." Hidan would never admit that Deidara's arrival was a slight relief, as the comrade with the freaky hands leapt down next to him.

"Who are you!" Kurenai shouted to the blonde-haired enemy who was dressed in the same black with red flowers cloak as Hidan, but seemed to have a very different set of skills as he came flying in on a giant white owl, that appeared to be made from clay and now was hovering behind it's master.

"The artist who arranged the redecoration of your little village. Konoha looks so much better in ruins, hmm." Deidara smirked at the thought, to the anger of most of the Jonin.

"Who are you. What are your intentions." Despite all the pain and death they've caused, Kakashi kept his legendary cool, even when his veins were screaming for him to conjure a Chidori and stuff it down their throats.

"Hey, hey! We're not answering any fuckin questions. The only actions we are going to do today is killing you all, take what we want and leave this heretic shithole behind." Hidan was forming a circle under his feet, using the copious amounts of blood running from his body as the paint. A bit too early, but the game had turned interesting.

Deidara took out his hand from the small belt-mounted bags, and held it in a clenched fist.

"In case you were too occupied with my colleague to have notice my art, here is another example, hm." His arm swung forward, the Jonin leaping backwards with their kunais raised, anticipating a projectile or ranged jutsu to be thrown at them. Deidara released two pursuit-type models, that flew forward for a few yards until they both suddenly grew larger, and picked up speed rapidly.

Asuma and Kurenai threw their kunais at the creatures, who dodged the attack with animal-like grace, and went straight towards Kakashi and Gai who were revealed to the targets. Kakashi calmly awaited the attack while Gai took a almost mocking pose, even when the creatures were just yards away.

"Katsu!" The birds exploded, covering the rooftop in smoke and flame.


	7. Red Sands & New Leaves

The explosion blew up most of the section of the roof, and for a moment Deidara actually believed his art having worked on the two Jonin who had been to arrogant to dodge it like their comrades did, who now stood on another nearby rooftop.

"Dynamic Action!" Deidara looked up, and up in the sky he saw the rapidly descending form of Maito Gai coming at him with a pulled back arm ready to deliver a punch. Kakashi was right behind with a kunai in hand.

His bird was too far away to reach it's master in time, and his art needed seconds he didn't have. Luckily, he did still have a partner who deemed Deidara's survival above that of their enemies. If the bastard just hadn't used Deidara's shoulder to push himself off to face Gai in mid-air, he might even been grateful.

Hidan went for a decapitating strike at Gai, who's unmatched taijutsu skills allowed him to somersault in mid-fall so the scythe passed harmlessly inches away from his face, and in the same move use his momentum to drive his foot up Hidan's chin, sending him flying a good distance away. His student would be avenged, and if he couldn't he would at least hit Hidan with 200 dynamic punches, and if he couldn't achieve that , he would deliver 400 kicks with the Fire of Youth. And after that…

Deidara took use of the distraction by leaping backwards, narrowingly evading a volley of kunais from Asuma and Kurenai, but still would end up landing in a helpless position where Kakashi had an opportunity to cut him down. If not the owl to arrive in time to catch it's creator and fly from immediate harm's way.

Elegant-like, the great clay bird dodged some more kunais and shurikens thrown it's way, and went for Hidan's latest site of impact while the Jonin gave pursuit.

"I'm gonna kill that fuck! Lord Jashin demands it!" Hidan was already cursing as he climbed from the window he crashed through into a upper floor apartment. He brushed off the shards of glass that added to the numerous cuts that his body was trying to heal.

"I see you're getting more and more successful at achieving that, hmm. But irregardless, we need to move this fight further away from the stadium. Our comrades have no need for others to disrupt their part of the plan."

Hidan grunted, before leaping on the bird besides Deidara, just time as the Jonin arrived for Round Two. Deidara had them ascend from the inmediate projectile range, while making a quick circle around them. The bomber tossed another of his birds at the Leaf ninjas, who dodged and the clay creature flew past into a tower, before blowning it up.

"A pit I already blew up most of what is worth showing my art for, hmm. I think for a final gift, I should aid Konoha in removing their most revolting workmanship." And with that loudly said, Deidara directed the bird to a new destination. The Hokage Monument, gigantic facial reproductions of the four Hokages, carved out of stone on the mountain cliff overlooking the Village.

Despite knowing that is very well could be an intentional lure, the danger of a crazed bomber destroying the memorials to the great ninjas who founded and protected the Village since it's creation many decades ago, was too great a risk to ignore. Kakashi only prayed the decision wouldn't end up costing them more dearly afterwards.

* * *

"You are not the first Leaf ninja I have fought."

"Is that so?"

"Indeed. It was in fact the First Hokage." The statement was made without any sign that it was an joke, and that he was in fact even older than Sarutobi while having the body of an young adult.

"..Oh, that is good to know. For a moment I was worried."

"Why is that."

"Because I do not remember the First losing to someone like you." A icy chill was felt by those present who were still human.

"That was a long time ago. Things changed."

"Or always stayed the same. Only to have grown more rotten."

The Kazekage was surprised by the Hokage's revelation of having a death wish, or display of immense ego. And he was worried because he was still in the firing range.

In a impressive display of reaction time and knowledge, the Hokage had summoned a dirt wall to protect himself and the others with him from the bomb blast. Only moments after it had passed, he dissolved the wall and ordered his ANBU and Chunin aides and guards to start rescue operations at once and alert the medic-nin. Some objected to leaving their leader alone when it was clear some very dangerous ninjas had begun an attack on the Village, and it being a mystery how many and what power they possessed.

But Sarutobi overruled them, and apart from the Kazekage, the Suna Jonin Baki who was the mentor and leader of the Kazekage's children and a pair of Suna Chunin guards, they were all alone.

Before the lone enemy arrived, his physical arrival masked by the still dominant and visibility-reducing clouds of dust, but Sarutobi feeling his dark chakra with an icy and detached killing intent radiating from him. The Kazekage sensed it too, and sent Baki and the two Chunins to deal with the enemy.

Neither Kages were unsure what happened next, as the enemy withdrew within the dust with the Suna ninjas following rapidly. Than there were some sounds of fighting, shouting, jutsus being called out. A sudden thunderclap, as if there had been a lightning strike on a clear day. Another followed, and finally a third thunderclap in rapid succession, until there was silence. Than a figure returned out of the dust.

It was Baki, clutching a smoking piece of flesh that used to be his right arm. He took some steps forward, a bewildered gaze in his eyes, before falling forward on the concrete and never getting up again.

Kakuzu followed moments later, hinting no signs of being winded or injured, despite fighting and defeating a Jonin and two Chunins in less than a minute. This was someone serious. The Kazekage stayed where he was, looking for a way out as someone confident enough to face down two Kages at the same time was either a fool or a person he should not fight if it could be avoided. Sarutobi on the other hand even moved forward, despite a good three decades older than his colleague. He stopped when he was in a appropriate range to stare down Kakuzu, his vision not being that clear anymore.

"Should take comfort, or not, to know this isn't personal. Strictly business." His head leaned to the right.

"Not sure if I can say the same for Sasori."

The Kazekage's eyes widened at the mention of the name, someone whom he hoped to be dead for twenty years. They grew ever wider upon hearing a familiar sound somewhere behind him, it's implication haunting. He instinctively turned, and by twisting his body in time the giant scorpion tail only tore through the white Kage robe, and harmlessly scratch the protective clothing underneath. The Kazekage leaped backwards, more shocked about the owner of the scorpion tail, than his attack.

Sasori of the Red Sands. The original candidate for the position of Kazekage after the Third's mysterious disappearance, if not for himself to vanish on the same night. The current Fourth took advantage of the two most powerful ninjas of the Village disappearing, by quick action and words of retribution, so that after some additional bribing the Village Council had no choice to but to elect him. The only potential rival he could not bribe or intimidate was Chiyo, Sasori's grandmother and one of the greatest ninjas to have ever lived. Even being at the age of 50 at the time, he wouldn't have dared to challenge her, thus thanking his immense luck in her being uninterested in the position and too devastated by the loss of her grandson, only ten years after losing her only son and her daughter-in-law to the White Flash of the Leaf.

And now her grandson stood before him. Looking the exact same as he did twenty years ago, in the same black cloak as Kakuzu. With him was someone who definitely had changed since last time. Hiruko had one of the great Suna Jonin, his strength and speed unmatched by any ninja until his death. His attacks were so fast and deadly, they named him the Scorpion Tail.

Sasori apparently had seen the humour in that, as the abomination that was Hiruko's body had been outfitted with a giant white spiked tail that stuck out like that of a real scorpion, having enough speed to surprise a Kage. Hiruko stood like a big abomination of a puppy next to Sasori, awaiting his commands.

"Sasori You sick treacherous insect! You'll pay for this!"

The red-haired traitor, his eyes half-closed in disinterest as if this was a boring conversation, shrugged.

" As if, oh great Kazekage. Pardon me for not giving you full attention in the coming moments, this might take a while and I des-"

"-pise waiting. Even after whatever unholy technique you used on yourself to stay young, you're still the impatient brat I remember." He felt good about that comment, Sasori's presence not having him entirely thrown of balance.

If Sasori felt insulted he didn't show it.

"And I see you're still the small-minded Jonin who got his rank and position through friends and favors, and after becoming a Kage still does not have a clue what…real…power…is."

It suddenly became dark, as if a black cloud had moved in front of the sun. Sarutobi and the Kazekage looked up, and grew a lot more worried. It was a swarm of puppets, humanoids in red cloaks and armed with every imaginable weapon. And some had a face the Kazekage remembered, making him stand frozen in horror. No puppeteer could control this many. Nobody human in heart or body that is.

"Terrified already? I haven't even brought out my favourite one." A small summoning scroll slipped from Sasori's sleeve, and brought out someone that even shocked Sarutobi. The Third Kazekage, the most powerful Sand ninja in known history, wielder of the Iron Sand. Vanished two decades ago, here he now stood as a blank-eyed puppet. The Kazekage could simply not produce any words.

"Watch out!" Sarutobi warned his colleague whom he hoped could take care of himself as the odds of fighting and winning against these two monsters were already close to none. The swarm of puppets suddenly descended downwards, their weapons at the ready.

But just as soon the Kages were making themselves ready to defend, the swarm suddenly changed directions. Towards the rest of the stadium. While the Kazekage took some guilty relief, the danger Sasori was going to put those below in, was more frightening to the Hokage than a impending death of his own. Faster than either Sasori or the Kazekage could react to, Sarutobi leapt after the flying mob of puppets and made the hand seals for a wide-area fire jutsu that hopefully could take them all down and protect his villagers and ninjas who would have been caught unaware.

But in his haste he forgot about his own safety and just before he could release the jutsu, a grip like iron suddenly pinced his left foot and pulled him backwards like a fisherman would do to his prey. Sarutobi looked at this sudden obstruction of movement, and saw it to be a disattached hand holding onto his foot, connected to thick black threads that lead all the way back to Kakuzu's right arm.

"You are not leaving." He pulled the hand, and Sarutobi with it, back so the Hokage went flying into the direction he just tried to leave.

Kakuzu let go of the Hokage, but only after using so much force the old man was nearly smacked into the remains of his own dirt wall, but even at his age Sarutobi managed to land right up.

He looked with great worry at the puppet swarm that vanished among the dust like a pack of hungry sharks tasting blood in the water. Sarutobi prayed his people would have the strength to fight off Sasori's minions, before snapping his attention back to his opponents and dodging a punch from Kakuzu that caused a crater on the very spot the Hokage had been standing.

Just a few yards away, the Kazekage made a backflip as Hiruko's tail came at him again, and once more came very close to doing some real hurt. Sasori and the Third Kazekage just stood and watched, making the Fourth less eager to be in a hurry to destroy Hiruko as it would mean them joining in.

"Kazekage!" Sarutobi called out to his rival, who had lined up next to him. "It's time we took these bandits seriously."

_Are you insane? We are not likely to survive this battle, and now you come up with redundant bluff that wouldn't scare off a fresh Genin, let alone these two monsters?_ The Kazekage mentally yelled the words, but his physical action was to nod and follow the Hokage's example.

The white-red and white-blue robes were removed in a instant, revealing that even in their positions of power and responsibility, the two Kages had remained ninjas. Sarutobi was dressed in a light suit of armour that was a successor to the full body plates of the First and Second Hokage's era sacrificing protection for mobility, but was not as sophisticated as the modern vests that offered only minimal protection and mostly relied on the wearer's ability to dodge attacks. The helmet he used to wear in combat was discarded as he had not deemed personal combat that likely today, replaced by a more typical Konoha forehead protector. The Kazekage's armour was more advanced as he was thirty years younger than the Hokage, with his outfit being a mixture of a vest and leather armour in the form of shoulder and knee pads, with a pair of metal bracers. His head was wrapped in a white desert turban that covered everything but his eyes, with the Suna symbol imprinted on the forehead.

"You know this won't change us killing you by any degree." Sasori replied mockingly. "All your followers are going to find are the dead beaten bodies of old men pretending to be a ninja."

"I thought you were the one who hated empty threats. Now let us begin." The Kages stood ready against the two, actually four if they counted the puppets, enemies. Than the four unleashed their separate attacks, and began a fight of the ages.

* * *

If not for the savage attack that likely claimed the lives of innocent people, the uncertainty and fear, the sounds of battle in the distance and the pain in limbs and chest, Hinata almost felt this to be one of her better days. As on what other day would she able to have the boy whom she loved in her arms, feeling his chest rise under her hands with every breath, his skin touching hers. The fact Naruto was unconscious due to the massive amount of blood lost and the earlier battle fatigue, was something Hinata tried to ignore.

After Naruto had saved her and Lee from the monster while suffering a deep gash in his shoulder, he brought them to the center of the stadium where a large section of the roof had come down and created a island of stone among the dirt. He placed them there, before collapsing himself from the blood he lost. Lee was in too much pain to help and had gone unconscious himself when the adrenalin left his veins, forcing Hinata to perform first-aid on Naruto herself, a job she did gladly if preferring in circumstances not so dire.

She removed the orange jacket, and used her own shirt to rip to pieces and make a bandage for Naruto's wounds as his own clothes were too dirtied and bloodstained to prevent infection. The normal embarrassment and shyness she felt by even looking at Naruto from a distance, was mostly replaced by concentration and fear, though Hinata slightly blushed when she realized the current close contact between herself and Naruto, and the undershirt was unable to cover her now bare arms.

Female ninjas her age and beyond had no problem showing skin, even her respected Jonin teacher did not apply to the standard ninja uniform with her short dress. And Hinata didn't even want to start thinking about the Second Exam Proctor, who's clothing fashion had most of the male and even one or two female Genins stare at her with the hope that jacket would stop being in the way. She was relieved Naruto wasn't drawn by Anko's discretion, even when it was because he was too irritated by behavior imitating his own or too scared to notice her lack of certain required feminine undergarments.

On a impulse, Hinata began to move her fingers through the thick blonde hair of Naruto. Sure it was sweaty and covered in dried up blood, but it was his hair, and she was touching it. The only thing that could make this moment better, besides an absence of carnage and terror, if she could see the bright blue eyes, the part of Naruto's body she never got a good look at because she was too afraid he would notice her staring when she was.

Now the thing she hoped for was just an hour or more alone with Naruto, preferably unconscious, and that the fighting would quickly die down with no one thinking about looking for the Hyuuga Heiress or the Number One Loudest Ninja for a long time.

"You are quite kinky for a shy upper class girl. They say my sexual habits are unorthodox, but I never undressed a knocked out guy during a battle. Friday night is a different story."

Even if she had activated her Byakugan, Hinata's eyes could not have grown wider. Slowly she turned her head to the source, which was a Anko Mitarashi standing a few feet away, grinning like a sociopathic killer. And besides her were the other female Genin of the Konoha Twelve, their eyes fixed like a hungry swarm of piranhas on their two comrades in a romantic position. Even covered in bruises and scratches, and danger being still near, the fact the shyest ninja in the Village was in her undershirt with the loudest ninja in the Village in her lap in a romantical embrance, was too good to miss out.

Hinata was in too much shock to blush, or to faint. That only happened when Naruto had suddenly awoken from his slumber, turned his head around to Hinata who was witnessing this with horror, smiled and said "Hi."

He did not understand why Hinata had snapped her head backwards so fiercely and knocking herself out on the stone they were sitting against. Nor did he understand the position he and Hinata were laying in, there didn't seem to be a threat of hypothermia on such a sunny day. And he also didn't understand why the other girls suddenly pounded on him, shouting that he was an idiot and should stop hurting Hinata's feelings. He began preferring fighting the crazy scythe guy over this new and terribly confusing situation.

Shikamaru watched on, and sighed, before muttering how troublesome this all was. He was one of the few male Genin to remain reasonably unscathed, when the stadium descended on top of them because of the bomb while making their way to the spectator areas. While none of them died due to Chouji employing his clan's Multi-Size jutsu to prevent the roof crushing them, several of the Genin were injured in the proces. Neji broke a leg, Kiba recieved a concussion that left him unconscious and Shino took a piece of metal shrapnel to his arm. The bug-user maintained his non-expressive posture and claimed to be alright, but his face was getting pale and sweaty. The Sand Genin Kankuro suffered a more emotional injury, as he had used his puppet Karasu to block a giant piece of debris that shattered the puppet beyond repair. Even now he cried about the tragedic loss, until his sister gave him a smack on the head with the iron fan she was carrying.

She glanced at Shikamaru, who perceived the act as a warning to stop calling girls troublesome. Which was troublesome. He figured Temari still being angry about him giving her the victory, despite having been in the position to easily win it if he wished so, which hurt her ego. Not that he cared for keeping girls happy, but ones as scary as Temari or his mother were best to keep content.

"Where is Gaara?" Temari asked after the rest of the girls had enough of beating him up. With a new collection of bruises, he pointed towards a half-collapsed dome of sand that had been partially turned to glass because of the heat of the explosion.

The Sand Genin hurried over to the spot with Shikamaru and Kankuro following. Despite knowing Gaara only as a loner and later as a monster, he was still her little brother. And she knew his issues were caused by the demon residing within, thanks to her father who was a cold-hearted bastard on his own, causing the death of his wife and their mother because he wanted more power and influence at the cost of his own family.

They found Gaara half buried in his own sand, the layer he kept around himself had largely dissolved. There was some blood spilling, and attempts to awaken him had no effect, but for the rest he was breathing and that mattered. Kankuro carried his smaller brother of his shoulder back to the others, who now would decide on what to do.

Anko, as a Jonin and as the most intimidating person of those assembled, took command and assessed the situation. Seven of the Genin were too injured to recommence combat, not matter how much the loud blonde was screaming he was ready to kick some ass until his pink-haired teammate slammed his head down and told him to be quiet. That left eight including herself.

She knew Kakashi, Gai and two others had gone in pursuit of the scythe-wielder and most of the ANBU had left to secure the rest of the Village in case this was part of a larger enemy attack. The Chunins were engaged in rescuing those trapped and wounded by the explosion. As for the village leaders, there were no ninjas who she imagined would have the skill to fight two Kages at the same time. So that left…

"Gaara!" The sudden outcry from Temari alerted the Genin to the fallen Sand-user who was suddenly surrounded by two persons dressed as robed ANBU. Each grabbed an arm and shoulder, and took off with his body in a leap that made them vanish among the lingering dustclouds.

Kankuro instantly leapt after them, but before he could be any position to stop them a shape from above descended on him. The first thing he saw was the long katana going for his head, upon which he grabbed a kunai to deflect the first blow. Than he saw the red ripped robes, heard the familiar sound and finally realized his opponent was a puppet. Not like Karasu, but with much more human features, with an amazing amount of detail like the eyes and skin that seemed real. Kankuro's appreciation for the work of art trying to kill him, almost got him as the puppet's weapon had more range and the user far more experience.

Fortunate for him the Leaf Genin were more interested in destroying puppets of any kind, and behind the creation, Sasuke Uchiha used the aerial technique he copied with his Sharingan from Rock Lee's use on him just before the First Exam. He added his own input in the move, by delivering a devastating axe heel kick to the back of the puppet, sending it flying to the ground and smashing it to pieces.

"Alright Sasuke!" Sakura called out. But after destroying the puppet, the prodigy ninja's face was more serious than usual. "We are not out of this yet."

"I concur." Shino commented, looking upward as everyone now did. The 'ANBU' discarded their disguises and began to fly up in the air while still holding onto Gaara, to join a mass of big ugly red crows, Sasori's puppet army, that now hovered above them and awaiting a signal to attack.

Kankuro stood with a open mouth at this display of puppetry that should be impossible. The best of puppeteers could control about five different creations in battle. Only a very few managed to wield ten, each on every finger. Even if there had been ten puppeteers, whom they should have seen by now, this was an incredible feat.

Each had their own emotion at the threat. Neji was angry as his leg meant no ability to attack them, and defensively he wasn't in a much better shape.

Ino felt useless as her jutsu could only work on people with a mind to take over, and her taijutsu skills were never developed beyond basic Academy standards. But because Sakura, being as much frightened as Ino, defiantly held up a kunai, her old friend took encouragement and readied herself.

Chouji wished he had one more bag of chips before dying.

Shino and Shikamuru analyzed the situation with cold tact, and began calculating how many they could take out. It was better than thinking about their chances of survival.

Everyone was quiet. Except for Naruto, who stood up with some effort as his legs were still weak from the blood loss.

"We're not scared of wooden toys! We are the pride of our Villages, and no matter how many you send, none of them will stop us from protecting our homes and comrades! None of them shall stop me from becoming the Hokage!" Naruto waved his clenched fist at the hovering mass that didn't flinch at this bluff.

The loud speech echoed through the stadium, and while some of the Genin sighed in annoyance at their comrade's usual idiocy, they were all glad that even someone like him had trust and faith in their abilities. And reminded them all that this fight wasn't about their survival, but that of the Village. Even Temari and Kankuro were inspired, as defeating them would mean them being able to rescue their little brother from their clutches.

And a distance away, Sasori smiled as the mental link he shared with the puppets confirmed them finding the Nine-Tailed Beast Host within minutes after they successfully captured the disabled One-Tail Host. He gave them the order to attack, to kill everyone but the Host before returning to him with new orders. He and Kakuzu would take likely some more time to finish off the Kages, depending on Hidan being successful in his part if the tide of the battle would go wrong.

He smiled because now they could finally put an end to the waiting, and put this battle and this Village to an end.


	8. Fall of Leaves

Launched like a pair of grapples with the threads acting as the rope, Kakuzu's hands went towards the charging Hokage with the intent of grabbing him and strangling the life out of the old man. Sarutobi began forming handseals with a speed that was beyond recalling memory, and was pure instinct. As the tiles from the nearby roof began to hover and launch themselves at Kakuzu who wasted several seconds being distracted by the ceramic projectiles, the Hokage inmediatly summoned another more potent jutsu.

"Earth River!"

The surface beneath the Akatsuki member turned to a thick liquid that began to flow rapidly, bringing him off balance, and forcing the hands to move away from their target and grab a hold of something to keep him falling from the battlefield.

"Fire Dragon Missile!" Sarutobi inhaled a large volume of air, and spewed a fire that was of such an intensity that the flames were white. It engulfed the helpless opponent who after a few seconds of exposure, instantly evaporated. No organic body would vanish that quickly, even with this so that meant a replacement clone. Which lead to Sarutobi ceasing his attack and turning around, and end up receiving a direct punch from the real Kakuzu in the face that sent him flying into a wall. That a man the Hokage's age could take the hit without breaking a jaw or skull, let alone survive it, was not impressive to his enemy.

While Sarutobi tried to shake off the concussion, Kakuzu charged forward with the intent to finish this in a single blow. But suddenly the ground in front of him was cut apart by a razor sharp wind, making him stop. The Kazekage, who was_ supposed_ to be handled by his colleague, he thought with great irritation, before dodging another attack of the slicing wind jutsu. The Suna leader's intervention gave Sarutobi enough time to recover, and launch another fire jutsu that Kakuzu would have no means for him to escape it.

A large strange body of dark massed threads, adorning a ANBU-style shark mask, leapt in front of the attack. The mouth section of the mask opened, and unleashed a water jutsu that easily equaled in strength those used by the Second Hokage. As a unstoppable tidal wave it intercepted the Hokage's fire jutsu, and due to elemental differences it successfully stopped the fire, killed it's oxygen supply and heat, and had enough power to move on and crush the two Kages in it's path. The Kazekage saved himself with a wind levitation that moved him out of harm's way for a few moments, while Sarutobi summoned a great wall of earth that spawned from the ground, and as a natural counter to water stopped the attack.

The Kazekage landed next to him on the wall, staring down below to Kakuzu as more creatures made out of threads in odd forms and wearing various animal masks.

"What are those things?"

Kakuzu ignored the two Kages, glaring with anger at Sasori who remained silent and inactive during the fight so far.

"What the hell is your meaning."

"I brought out my treasured toys. Didn't think it would be fair for not you to do the same."

"They are not my toys. For this, I will kill you, once we've dealt with them."

One of the creatures, this one the owner of a bull mask, leapt up and fired a lightning bolt at the earth wall. Again the elemental system was in the Kage's disfavor, as the lightning attack cut the wall in half, narrowly hitting the Kages in the process and causing the separated parts to collapse in opposite directions.

Standing on the part that was about to fall into the stadium, Sarutobi leaped over to the other part who's fall was stopped by the Kage booth. He was meaning to stick with the Kazekage, as only together they stood a chance. Which their opponents also knew. The scorpion tail of Hiruko went for the Hokage in midair, who barely had time to use the shield on his wrist bracer to block it. As soon as he landed he inmediatly moved away once more with the tail striking the vacant spot. As Sarutobi tried to evade the tail, and the volley of needles fired from Hiruko's gauntlet, the typical clacking sounds of a puppet behind him alerted of the Third Kazekage joining the fight.

The Fourth was no position to help. Kakuzu sent the bull creature after him with a second lightning jutsu, that the Fourth managed to counter with his own wind jutsu, only to surprised by another creature, this one with a tiger mask, to attack with a fire-type. He cursed his affinity for only one element, the initial reason why Sasori and others were seen above him by his lack of a unique skill or great versatility. His wind-chakra would only add strength to the fire attack in terms of more oxygen. If he had a different elemental attack, he could overpower or at least meet the attack on equal terms.

Deciding to be smart if power and luck did not work, the Fourth waited until the last moment to react.

"Kaze Tsurugi!" Unlike the wide areas his previous jutsus damaged, this was a far more precise attack aimed at the giant fireball, cutingt it in half so the flames would pass him without causing bodily harm. He definitely felt the immense heat, too scared to think what would have happened if the attack had connected.

As soon as the fire died out, the Fourth was taken by surprise by Kakuzu who had followed in the wake of the fire attack, and threw a punch at the unprepared Kazekage who blocked it at the last moment using both his bracers as a improvised shield. The two men began trading kicks and punches, with Kakuzu being in a clear advantage as he himself was utilizing some sort of Earth jutsu to make his limbs as hard and strong as rock. He also utilized reflexes that were shockingly fast and well-timed, having taijutsu skills that rivaled masters like the infamous Green Beast of the Leaf. All this caused the Fourth to be thrown back consistently, every counter-attack either ignored or easily blocked. Even attempts to break out of the hand-to-hand fighting were failing, the four creatures surrounded him and launched attack of four elements whenever he tried to move out of Kakuzu's direct vicinity.

The Hokage was in no better position, even worse, as he dodged the sword wielding by the Third Kazekage, while leaping up to avoid the scorpion tail aiming for his feet. Sasori was not giving him the time to launch an counterattack, and seemed intent on having his inexhaustible puppets to reduce the stamina of the old man until his reactions were no longer sufficient. Understanding he would not last long, nor would the Fourth in his position, Sarutobi bit his thumb to release the blood necessary for the summoning jutsu.

Taking advantage of a moment's free of attack, as the Third Kazekage lined up for another assault while Hiruko retracted his tail for a better angle, Sarutobi planted the bloodied thumb onto the ground while making the hand seals.

"Kuchiyose: Enma!" A cloud of smoke obscured the old man. Sasori immediately pulled back the Third Kazekage, but allowed Hiruko to continue as his attack was ranged and thus not put him into any direct danger to whatever creature the Hokage had summoned.

The giant scorpion tail went for the center of the cloud, and instantly struck something solid. Sasori was pleased by this threat being ended before Sarutobi could make use of it, as if the inflicted wound was not fatal to the creature, the poison would.

So imagine his surprise, when something with inhuman strength began tugging at the tail. And before Sasori could detach it, an emergency feature he had built in, the human puppet was pulled towards the dissipating cloud at a incredible speed. As the smoke faded away, it revealed a tall and broad humanoid figure standing in front of Sarutobi. It was the famous personal summon of the Third Hokage, the Monkey King Enma. And right now, it was readying one of it's big hands into a mighty fist while using the other to tug the helpless Hiruko towards him. And a eyeblink later, the Monkey King's fist struck the face of the scorpion-man puppet, and shattered it's entire body in a single blow. As shards of wood and preserved bones scattered in every direction, Enma than grasped the still intact tail and sent it back to Sasori with a powerful throw. The puppet master moved his body to the right, so the tailed projectile missed him at a inch's length, before it vanished in the distance.

"So, brought out your own toy, now? Finally. Always wanted to see how one of my puppets would stand up to a summoned beast." His favored puppet appeared in front of Sasori.

"Senju Sobu!" The Third Kazekage raised it's left arm, that suddenly opened several compartments that contained summoning seals that were being activated. A flash of light, and hundreds of long puppet arms stretched outwards, towards the Hokage and Enma. There were far too many to block to dodge, and within a second the arms were on top of them, and the two disappeared under the mass of wooden hands. Sasori didn't believe it had worked.

"That was too simple-" And his words were truth, when the forest of arms retracted, revealing Sarutobi safe and intact in a cage constructed of adamanite staffs, that fell apart and changed to a single great staff that the old man had no trouble wielding. Enma's unique Adamanite ability, or as Sasori heard, becoming as hard as diamond, and as sharp as a sword.

That proved, as before the Third Kazekage could launch another assault, Sarutobi leapt forward, on top of the moving mass of arms, and smashed it apart. An attempt to launch a grapple hook to restrain Sarutobi was easily deflected, and a other attempt to engulf the old man in a cloud of poison gas was rendered futile with the staff only needing a single swing to dissipate the thick cloud.

Sasori had the Third detach the left arm as it's tricks had run out. "Excellent, but are you ready for an ability you might remember."

The puppet's mouth opened, and unleashed a black metallic substance that reminded Sarutobi of the swarms used by the Aburame Clan, but knew it to be far more lethal. The Iron Sand, once one the most feared ninja jutsus in the world. It floated up above them, forming a dark mass that quickly began to separate and take the shapes of a large cube and a drill.

"The Iron Hammer and Iron Spear.." The Fourth Kazekage gasped as he glanced at the other fight, an mistake that Kakuzu punished with a mean righthook.

The two weapons hovered above Sarutobi, like the tools of an angry god. The Adamanite Staff became less of a comfort, but he held on tighter.

"You should feel honored. Most ninjas perish at Hiruko's tail, you managed to bring out a Kage's secret ability. Impressive, for an old man."

"For someone who hates waiting, you seem talk a lot. Hiding insecurity at victory, Sasori?"

"No. Only some comforting words before you die."

The two shapes of Iron Sand descended rapidly.

* * *

At the Stadium grounds, a pair of puppets lowered the still body of Gaara on the far end and from harm's way, before the rest of Sasori's abominations fell upon the Leaf ninjas as a swarm of violent bloodlusted crows, with weapons of every variety and size. Some of the first wave were taken out by several kunais with attached explosive-tags, kikai bugs that managed to eat away the chakra string, and a pair of fireballs delivered by the two fire-type users among the targets for the puppets. Than it descended to the mess that was close combat, an ugly form of killing the other side, and made even more difficult when the other side isn't alive to begin with.

Neji used his Byakugan to seek out the joints in each attacking puppet, and act according with his Juuken. Hard precise strikes were used, five or four for each of them, and at the last the constructions fell apart as the joints were severed. Some were taken out even quicker, with Neji dodging their initial attack and severing the chakra string that was as radiated brightly before the all-seeing eyes that were the pride of the Hyuuga Clan. But eventually the puppets noticed the limp the boy was moving with, and the grimace he had in his face whenever he needed to put a slight amount of weight upon the leg. They began their usual attack from the usual angle, only to move to a different position at the last moment where Neji would be forced to make a full use of the damaged limb, at a speed he could not prepare himself for the pain as his reflexes shifted his weight. The pain was so agonizing that Neji was distracted for a fraction of a second, even in a ninja battle that was a very short time, but enough for the closest puppet to graze the Hyuuga with his sword. A minor superficial wound that under normal conditions would not have any effect.

But normal conditions did not include the poison Sasori had laced every single weapon in his arsenal with, the paralyzing and painful effect taking Neji inmediatly out of the fight to his shock. The puppets did not try to finish him off as he lay helpless, the poison would eventually, and instead moved onto other targets that were busy fighting off the mob.

Ino fell quickly after deflecting several attacks, a kunai stuck in her shoulder with the poison taking away her strength instantly, a fate shared by Kankuro only moments later.

Shino had his bugs form a defensive perimeter, one that the puppets stopped trying to breach after losing several chakra strings, and throwing weapons as well. One of the puppets landed in front of the swarm, and began forming the seals for a wind-type jutsu, having been a skilled user of ninjutsu in life and Sasori taking advantage of that in death. The chakra-driven winds managed to drive away the barrier of bugs, only for a moment, to allow several puppets to breach Shino's perimeter and close in. They recognized the bleeding hanging arm as one he could not use, and attacked him there. But their master underestimated the Aburame Clan, as it would seem they would be defenseless without their bugs, and thus were not ready for the expert taijutsu techniques Shino used to fend off the puppets without a single one managing to land a hit, until the bugs had restored cohesion and a rearguard finished off the intruders within the perimeter.

The last puppet saw his chakra string being consumed, his master losing control over him in a second, and as a last act launched his head like a projectile at Shino's wounded arm, and biting into it. The bug-user uttered a rare cry of pain, and smashed the puppet's head to remove it's grip from his arm. Too late, as even the teeth of the puppets were had been dipped in Sasori's poison. He fell quicker than most, his body having already exhausted most of his stamina reserves in the fight along with the blood loss. His bugs retreated to make a much tighter perimeter to guard their master, but the puppets continued onward as the threat he represented had been neutralized.

Tenten unleashed a storm of kunais and other bladed weapons at the puppets, who simply ignored the lethal weapons being stuck into them and proceeded to stab her in the abdomen to induce the poison and remove her as a threat before moving on.

Shikamaru kept low and seemed to be running away from the fighting, this action causing a number of puppets into believing that he presented an easy target and quickly fell upon him, just as planned. He made the hand seals, and than the group of puppets suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, their shadows caught by the Nara Clan specialty of binding the enemy's shadow to their own and making them a living version of a puppet. The boy grinned.

"Shadow Bind, successful. Heh." His smirk did not betray the knowledge that he could only maintain the bind for five seconds, his chakra had been drained severely in his fight with Temari. Nor did he need to.

"Human Tank Attack!" The puppets turned their wooden necks, just in time to see a giant boulder rolling their way at a great speed, and could not do anything because of the Shadow Bind holding them in place. They were helplessly crushed by Chouji in a single run, after which he disengaged his giant size and returned to the normal thick-boned friend of Shikamaru. After being trounced in the Preliminary fights, this small victory came as a great increase of his self-esteem.

"Shikamaru, I did it!" The fight was far from over nor was their chances of survival significantly increased, but Chouji's friend still nodded. Than his eyes widenend, his mouth muttered a groan and Shikamaru fell over, needles stuck in his back.

"Shikamaru!" Chouji cried out, as he caught his falling friend with one arm and swatted the puppet responsible like a fly with the other that was enlarged with the Multi-Size jutsu. Unfortunately that made it a big target for another puppet, who threw a kunai into the giant hand, ensuring the poison would strike down the boy who now fell next to Shikamaru onto the stadium dirt.

Temari looked with worry at the defeat of the two Leaf genins, one in particular, and than focused on her own troubles. Having recognized her large destructive potential, a group larger than most had assembled in the sky above her, swooping down like vultures upon carrion. She held up the large iron fan, that she opened completely, before using it to launch her most devastating attack, a wind-based attack that by manipulating the currents of the air creates a wave of invisible razorwinds that cut apart everything in their path. The first of the puppets were cut to pieces and their weapons deflected. Fighting jutsu with jutsu, a former fire-type user puppet closed in and launched a counter elemental attack. Instead of stopping the attack, Temari's wind only increased it's strength, turning a 'simple' fireball into a great inferno landing right on top of her. She leapt just in time away to dodge the attack, a move anticipated by Sasori who had his puppets flank and engage her in close combat to negate her ranged ninjutsu.

She proved to be no slouch in hand-to-hand herself, as Temari caught sight of a puppet with a readied sword coming at her from behind. She slammed the iron fan down, and used it as a jump point to leap over it, the puppet's swing of his sword missing her and harmlessly scratching the fan. When Temari landed on the other side, she picked up the fan and slammed it down on the puppet, crushing it in a single blow. But having seen the attack coming, the puppet's sword-holding arm launched, and slashed Temari's thigh, and became another victim to the poison that now had taken out most of the Genin. Those who remained standing had taken positions around Naruto and the wounded, who for some reason were ignored despite easy targets. But now the stragglers had been taken down, they regrouped for the final assault.

"Sakura. Sasuke." Anko softly whispered, fearing the puppets could hear them. "We won't last for two seconds if we stay here. On my signal, grab Naruto and Hinata, and get out of here. I'll hold them off as long as I can."

Sasuke nodded with some reluctance, and so did Sakura with some hesitation at seeing everyone taken down, likely being dead. She knew the life of the ninja being cruel and unmerciful, but this was beyond a war, this was a massacre. By monsters.

"I don't need saving, I'm getting better!" Cried out the blonde brat, who's attempts to stay upright were indeed improving but were far from combat effective. His stubbornness distracted Sakura from her fear, slamming Naruto down. "Shut up!"

Above them, the puppets gathered for another attack, flying downward like dive bombers.

"Go!" Anko yelled as she leapt up to intercept the puppet mob. Sasuke grabbed his teammate while Sakura did the same for Hinata, and began an hasty run for the walls where they would attempt to climb with their loads to escape.

Anko launched a fire jutsu at the center of the puppet formation, taking out a minor number before they scattered and evaded the attack, flanking her in the process. Swords drawn, they approached her from several angles to make it impossible for her to escape. An tactic she anticipated, and waited for the puppets to come closer to activate the jutsu she's developed on her own with only a few people's knowledge. After the departure of the legendary Snake ninja, she felt that the position of Konoha's foremost expert on the serpents should be hers to honor Orochimaru. Spending years tracking down scrolls and research all over the five major countries, so one day she will restore pride of snakes, normally seen as the lowest of creatures.

The puppets closed around her, and she waited until there was no time to draw in more.

"Taju Sen'eijashu!" From the sleeves of her coat, a mass of grey snakes erupted, dozens of them. Each took a hold of a individual puppet, keeping it in it's place while restricting any movement that could set off a ranged attack. She didn't manage to catch the entire crowd, but there were enough in her grasp to prevent the remaining from passing through the barrier the restrained fellow constructs had made. Anko felt her chakra draining rapidly, the normal number of snakes summoned were about four or five, now she had over sixty and more immobilizing the puppets. She promised to hold onto them for as long as possible, even if it meant death.

Sasori couldn't wait that long, and had five of the nearest puppets open their chests, and reveal the explosive tags hidden within. Anko gasped, a moment before the tags were ignited and set off.

Sasuke glanced back at the hearing of the explosion, and saw the flames and smoke obscuring the position where they last saw the Jounin, and how the puppets resumed their advance towards them. He and Sakura had reached the stadium walls with their friends being carried in their arms, and began to use the tree-walking technique they've learned in the Country of Waves to run up the concrete, having chakra fix their feet to the surface to negate gravity. But their training had been sparse, their loads heavy, and halfway up the great height the puppets attacked.

"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed out as a earth-type jutsu unleashed by one of the puppets tore apart the section of the wall, separating them, and sending Sakura off her balance, and fall to the ground and out of sight. Sasuke was unsure for a moment, to continue the mission or rescue his teammate, one of the most difficult decisions in a ninja's life.

"Hinata! Sakura!"Naruto wrestled himself from Sasuke's arms and jumped after them, thus making the decision easy for the Uchiha prodigy.

His pupils became red with the marks that signified the Sharingan. In a fraction of a second, he calculated the present factors such as the number of puppets, their positions, the time they would need to reach Naruto and his friends, and the time he would be required to pull off the impossible. In his hand an orb of lightning began to form, a special jutsu taught by his sensei. After collecting the data of his surroundings, and the Chidori in his hand ready for action, he ran forward, or below in his current vertical position, with a supernatural speed towards the crowd of puppets.

Normally it would have been a suicide move as the Chidori required the user to get tunnel vision because of the speed required, making it easy for even puppets to avoid it in time. But not with the Sharingan eyes, that foresaw every move and how to counter it. Barely acknowledging him to be attacking before he did, a number of puppets were destroyed instantly as the electrical jutsu in Sasuke's hands smashed and burned right through the wood and bone structures. The earth-type puppet summoned a wall upon the stadium itself to stop Sasuke's advance, but lightning's advantage against earth made the Chidori run through it like water and than through the earth-using puppet itself. His attack was so fast he began catching up to the still falling Naruto, Sakura and Hinata, but he saw the one near puppet opening his chest to reveal a large automated needle shooter, and realized there was not enough time to take it out to save his comrades. Desperate to make it, he leaped forward..

* * *

"Painful, ain't it, fuckin heretic?" Hidan pressed the spike further into his own arm, and Kakashi clenched his teeth to not scream at the pain.

More blood began pouring down his arm, from the wound that no kunai or weapon had caused. Kakashi couldn't explain how, but Hidan's sudden change of skin colour with the white tattoos, the circle he had drawn with his own blood on the stone forehead of the Third Hokage's statue, all led to the conclusion the unkillable-seeming monster could cause his wounds to be redirected at the attacker. Hidan earlier managed to graze his opponent's temple with the giant scythe, it moving in every direction when released from it's master's grip and the Sharingan being limited, but because there appeared to be no poison or toxin to make him weaker, Kakashi did not suspect much at first.

Hidan ceased his assault, to lick off the blood the weapon drew from Kakashi, whom assumed it was to be a intimidation technique for those who were easily intimidated. But Hidan changed his body to the colour it held now, only the slicked-back hair remained the same, and drove one of his black spikes into his own arm, and injured Kakashi at the same time.

Further away on top of the cliff upon which the four statues had been carved out, Kakashi's fellow Jounin were engaged in a battle to prevent the bomber Deidara from destroying the proud monument, and from being killed themselves by the flocks of explosive clay birds sent their way. If he could have seen them from his current position, Asuma's revealing of a secret monk technique that allowed to intercept most of the birds with a invisible force that literally punched the birds off course, and detonating prematurely. Behind Asuma, Kunerai and Gai took out the stray birds that escaped the jutsu.

From the clay owl, Deidara was getting annoyed at his attempts to replace those ugly giant monstrosities that were supposed to be artistic with some real art, were stopped. And his clay was beginning to run low, despite the extra large supplies he brought along. Just enough for a few small ones, or a very large one. He stuffed the handmouths into the clay pockets, confident with the three of them down below being harmless at this range and the fourth being taken care of by Hidan, if the idiot was at least capable of that.

Nearly finished with the speciality, Deidara gazed down on the three Jounin who stared back at him, waiting for his next move.

"Okay, nicely done, hmm. But I dare you to intercept my next work of art!"

"Not interested!" A voice called out behind him, and as Deidara turned, he caught the unexpected foot of Gai in his stomach. "Dynamic Entry!"

The force behind the attack made Deidara fly upward, away from his owl that inmediatly took action to prevent it's master from falling to his death. Gai held onto it, making Deidara glance downwards where he assumed the taijutsu expert to have been standing. Now only two Jounin stood there.

_Genjutsu, I see. The woman made a fake copy of her comrade while he got around me and attacked me upon least expecting it, hmm. And I thought Itachi was annoying_. His thoughts finished quickly, as Gai used the transporting owl as a jumping board, to attack Deidara once more. Not an amateur himself in the ninja art of hand-to-hand combat, he defended himself with skillful blocks, and began trading punches and kickings with Gai in mid-air, hundreds of metres above the Village. As their ascent stopped, an untimely fall to their deaths was stopped by the owl who flew into their path, and allowing the two to continue fighting.

Far below the aerial battle, Kakashi began to hold out his uninjured arm, and began forming electricity in his hands. There was a chance Hidan's immortality had limits, and the heart being completely destroyed would seem having a shot at causing damage beyond those limits. Even if it meant his own death.

Hidan grasped his scythe tighter, in gleeful anticipation. One hand went for a pocket under his cloak, and retrieved a medical glass vial that contained a small amount of blood, similairly to those used in the hospital's blood bank. It was one of the items the late Mizuki stole in his last mission for Akatsuki.

"What is that." Kakashi asked, as the Lightning Blade began to grow bigger and more intense in his palm.

"Your blood. See, I'm guessing you figured my trick out by now, and planning to do something nasty in hopes to overcome the glorious ability to live and let die, granted by my God Jashin. So…" Hidan brought the vial to his mouth and gulped down the crimson liquid down his throat, nearly half of it covering his chin like he was a child drinking chocolate milk. When the vial was empty, he smeared off some of the blood from his mouth and smashed the vial to pieces on the stones. "..I'm taking special care Jashin's retribution will be something fierce! Get ready to go to hell, infidel motherfucker!"

The immortal howlered the battlecry his deranged religion used to warn enemies of their impending deaths and threw his weapon. The scythe dragged along the statue, it's blades desecrating the Third Hokage's face by making a ugly diagonal scar across it as it charged Kakashi. Dodging the initial strike, he leapt on the rope that connected the weapon to it's owner, and followed towards him. Holding up the Raikiri, the advanced form of the Chidori, he ran to meet Hidan, the wounded arm leaving a trace of blood in his path. His enemy began retracting the weapon, forcing Kakashi to dodge it again on it's way back and returned to the hands of it's master, just before the Copycat launched his final attack.

The two ninjas struck at the same moment, Hidan holding up his scythe and bringing it down, Kakashi pushing the Raikiri forward into his enemy's chest. There was a loud static discharge, and than a long moment of silence. Hidan's eyes bulged from their sockets, and dropped the scythe from his hand. Kakashi stood silently, his arm stuck in the smoking and scorched chest of Hidan, shivering from the physical and chakra effort and awaiting death.

"Hehehe..hahahahaha.." Kakashi looked up to Hidan, on whom's blood-covered face a smile began to grow as he cackled. "HahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The high-pitched soared, even when Kakashi tried to pull his hand out. Hidan grabbed the wrist lodged in his body, and launched a vicious knee in Kakashi's stomach that nearly sent him falling if not for Hidan grabbing the collar of his Jounin vest. Weakend by the blood loss and the Raikiri, the Copycat Ninja could barely struggle as Hidan grinned at him.

"That was good, that was really fuckin good! I felt that! But take a guess, you dumb fuck, why you are still alive? **I LIED!**" Kakashi's normal and Sharingan eyes widened, as through some subconscious telepathy, he realized what Hidan's words meant.

* * *

At the stadium, a moment away from shattering Sasori's puppet body with Enma's Adamanite Staff form, Sarutobi wondered all of a sudden why his heart just exploded. He stumbled backwards, dropped Enma who inmediatly changed back to his monkey form with a look of shock in his eyes, and the Hokage fell. His summon ran forward and caught the old man before hitting the ground, confused by this. Their enemy Sasori sighed, quietly relieved as the Hokage had managed to evade his Iron Sand, destroy the Third Kazekage and skipped all his other defenses.

"That bastard Hidan waited too long. Almost lost my favourite body because of him."

Not far away, Kakuzu finished ripping the still-beating heart from the Fourth Kazekage's chest. The cowardly-seeming ninja actually managed to destroy the bull-masked creature in a stroke of luck, but a combined assault brought him down eventually. He looked over and saw Sasori have won the battle too, or Hidan having done his job, for once. He ignored the monkey as he walked over to Sasori, while the masked hearts dissolved their physical forms and were returned to his body.

"We are finished here. Did you locate the Tailed Beast Hosts."

"I have. Already caught the One-Tail, an easy picking. The Nine-Tails has proven to be more difficult, but already eliminated nearly every of his comrades and those remaining are too weak to put up a fight. This will be over in moments."

Behind them Enma slowly lowered the body of Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of Konoha, to the ground, before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, the fate of any summon when their master had no more need of their services or died.

* * *

On the stadium grounds, Naruto had landed hard on his back, forgetting that he needed to land feet and hands first when he was distracted by Sakura's sudden scream, who was a few meters away but looking distressed along with Hinata. Next to him, Sasuke landed in a perfect prodigy stance. He looked down to Naruto in the dirt, and gave one of his usual arrogant smirks.

"You idiot."

Sasuke than fell over, displaying the large number of needles he put himself in the path of, to protect his friends from their poisonous effect. Sakura screamed again, this time not to warn or express concern, but from outright horror, while Hinata could only silently stare.

Naruto found his vision being tainted with crimson mist, and a familiar feeling of instinctive rage washing over him, setting his mind and heart alight with fire. His nails and fangs began to grow, and his pupils changed to resemble those of an animal. As Sakura ran over to Sasuke, Hinata witnessed how red radiating energy flowed over Naruto's body, the demon within granting the incredible power to vanquish the enemy.

At least, that was the general idea before a needle from nowhere stuck itself in Naruto's neck. The blonde brat blinked as his eyes stared dumbly into the distance, his body returned almost instantly to normal and dropped to his knees.

"NARUTO!" Hinata screamed, and despite not having the energy to spit she quickly crawled over to him.

"Don't get hysterical. Simply an tranquilizer." Behind her, Sasori had arrived to deal with the remaining Host. Kakuzu tried to follow, but now some pesky Chunins and Jounins had made through the ruin that had become the Stadium and were now engaging him in a useless fight to avenge their Hokage. The girl let go of the Tailed Beast Host, and set herself in a classic Juuken stance, determined to fight to the bitter end.  
"How pathetic, like all of you Leaf ninjas. I have taken down all your comrades, your teachers, your very own Hokage, and you still believe to have a chance to win?"

"This is n-not about winning…this is about not giving up…A-as long someone stands in your way, y-you will never defeat Konoha." Her legs trembled at the sight of this monster, but after what he has done, to her, to her friends, to Naruto…

"Than allow me to bring you out of the dream, and into the nightmare." Behind Sasori, the remaining puppets numbering over fifty, closed in from every direction.

Sakura was only a few meters away, clutching Sasuke who was in paralyzing agony. She could help Hinata, but deemed it only delaying the inevitable, which she rather would spent with the Uchiha boy she loved. Not distracted by battle, she became the first to notice the ground was moving. She could feel the dirt flowing under her heels, and when she looked closer, it was moving in a distinct direction. That of Sasori, who arrogantly stared at the Hyuuga as his puppets surrounded her and did notice how the ground beneath him and the puppets became thicker with sand. Sand! That detail caught her mind, and before she could shout a warning to Hinata to not be frightened as aid was coming, it happened.

It was like the stadium grounds came to life, as if the very soil was rising. Sasori found himself engulfed in the sand that rose beneath his feet and all over him like a fountain, and over his puppets. Surprised for a moment, but like Sakura came to a fast conclusion, and his eternal half-closed eyes finally opened in full panic when he released who was responsible. He tried to escape, but by now the sand held him in an unmerciful grip that moved him upward. There were no ways out for the puppet master who deemed himself to be living for eternity, but now didn't even have time to scream when a voice from afar suddenly called out the jutsu that finished this battle. Gaara had been conscious for a while now, but had been in no position to directly defend himself. So he had patient, inserting and mixing his sand with that of the stadium ground, and waited until the master of the puppets revealed himself, and conveniently placed himself from where would be no escape. The third eye he sent out to watch the battle confirmed it was time. He reached out his hand..

"Sabaku Soso!" And closed it tightly.

The sand imploded, crushing Sasori and his puppets. Even the heart container, the one thing that the puppet master believed to grant him immortality, was destroyed under the immense pressure. The bodies were turned to mere splinters of wood, metal and bone, the poison within safely moved far beneath the earth where it could do no harm. Upon completion, the sand fell back to the ground, leaving the Akatsuki member nothing more than a ten minute job for the cleaning crew. Gaara fell back to his near-comatose state with no more enemies and no more chakra, leaving Sakura and Hinata trembling at this sudden ending of a brutal fight.

* * *

"Hey, pay attention. I want to see the fear in your eyes when I kill ya heretic ass."

Kakashi had turned his head away from Hidan for some time, who did not notice the fountain of sand that briefly rose above the stadium. His task being done, he figured he owed himself a few moments of happy slaughter before the Leaf ninjas reorganized and became too troublesome to continue. Starting with this piece of shit ninja, who was not daring to look him in the eye. Hidan assumed the Leaf ninja realized what he has done, which added to his own amusement but decided not to linger as there were plenty more people to kill. He pulled Kakashi closer, to make his point more clearer.

"I said, pay attention, motherfu-" When Kakashi gazed back at him, Hidan was silenced by the change in the Sharingan eye. It somewhat resembled that of Itachi's, but with a circle surrounding the pinwheel in the center of the red pupil. Hidan wasn't worried, not largely, as this guy wasn't Itachi by a long shot.

"That's interesting. But useless. What are you doing to do? Predict me killing you?"

"I think it's time..you went away." The Sharingan eye flashed.

Suddenly Hidan felt a wave of vertigo, as the world starting whirling, which made him assume it was some amateur genjutsu. But than there was this odd pressure on his face and chest, that grew more intense and heavier until it actually began to hurt. He tried to let go off Kakashi, but now the Leaf ninja held onto him. Than Hidan tried moving away, but some force was keeping him in place, unable to move. All this time Kakashi kept staring at him with the Sharingan eye, as the world became more distorted, and Hidan felt the very unpleasant sensation of his head and chest being pulled apart. Which they were.

The jutsu used by Kakashi would one day be called Kamui, as everything needed a name. Normally it would have been developed on it's own pace, taking years after discovering the Mankeyou Sharingan. But today's events, stress, exhaustion and the immortal abomination that deserved death above all else being in his face and mocking everything Kakashi stood, drove it into existence now. If Hidan had stood further away, like normal in a ninja fight, there had been a good chance of the precise jutsu missing as it required a great deal of trained accuracy and stamina to hit an enemy with it.

But inches away, there was no chance in hell that Hidan could escape the gravitational forces that were pulling parts of his body into another, unknown, dimension. The man who greeted the destruction of his very heart with laughter, now began to scream out of terror and pain. His last thoughts were desperate, how this was unnatural, how Jashin could not allow this to happen to his most loyal servant, what he ever did to deserve this unjust treatment…

There was the sound of a wet snap, flesh tearing, and the screaming stopped. Kakashi disengaged the jutsu, with some slight relief, as a few seconds more would likely been fatal. He stood there, sensing the headless body of Hidan falling past him from the Hokage Monument, landing where the Konoha cleanup crews would eventually find and dispose of the corpse.

The torment Kakashi put his body through finally caught up, as did his chakra reserves in reaching near-absolute exhaustion. He fell backwards, and so did his mind that shut down and left him floating away in a dark abyss. Kakashi was so far out he did not notice halfway through his physical fall, Gai snatching him from mid-air and landing safely with his friend over his shoulder on top of the below Hokage Tower, where he put him down for a moment before looking for a medic-nin. Asuma and Kurenai followed swiftly.

"Did you defeat the clay-using ninja, Gai?"

"Unfortunately no, the coward had one of his creations blow up in my face and flee on the owl before I could regain my wits. His fear was likely brought by the act of me pulling his arm off and using it as a blunt weapon, having run out of kunais to strike him with some time earlier."

Kurenai and Asuma gave him that stare, one commonly given when he made use of an unorthodox but effective technique.

"Don't be jealous because you didn't think of it yourselves! But do not fright, if you request, Gai shall teach you the glorious art of-"

"Gai, enough. Look at the Village…"

The three Jounin, caught in the heat of battle, now saw the full extent of the devastation brought upon Konoha by the four enemies. Several buildings had been brought down by Deidara's explosives, the Hokage Monument had received a large amount of damage, medic-nin and Chunins were everywhere helping the injured and moving the dead. The stadium was the worst sight, half-collapsed with not knowing how many had been killed by the initial attack. And all three, Asuma especially, felt a sudden void that they had not felt since the death of the Fourth Hokage. They just faced one of the worst battles in their lives, but expected even worse times to be ahead.

* * *

Just outside of the Great Konoha Walls, taking use of the security gap the destruction of the towers had caused, Kakuzu was fleeing the Village with Deidara not far behind.

"That went well, hmm."

"Definitively. Lost two of our number, insufferable as they were they were useful, and failed to retrieve the two Tailed Beast Hosts. Leader will be pleased."

"But we caused some considerable damage to the Hidden Leaf, hmm. Killing the Kages of the two mightiest Villages will please the Leader somewhat, let us not forget the number of ninjas who shall be no threat for us in the future."

"If not for Sasori's sadism, half the number would be already dead. Three days of agony are still three days of time for finding a cure."

"A cure that even Sasori could not produce for his own venom, so what will they have, hmm? Meaning they will spend three days of caring for comrades that they cannot save, finding a cure that cannot be found, and wait for a fate they cannot avoid, hmm."

"If you are wrong, I will kill you." The two Akatsuki members, who thought with annoyance with the prospect of being partnered to each other in the future after losing their respective partners, kept silent while they retreated. Until Kakuzu asked the obvious question.

"Deidara, what happened to your arm?"


	9. The Search

The morning following the day of the Chunin Exams, the skies were gloom and rained down like a testament to the sorrow caused by the Akatsuki attack. Over a hundred people had been buried, mostly civilians and foreigners who had been seated in the most heavily struck areas of the stadium, and over forty Leaf ninjas who perished in the following onslaught. Even greater were the numbers that lay injured. The hospital was overburdend, the hallways overcrowded, and the work for the medic-nin overloaded. The wounds and trauma caused by the bomb and the fighting were troubled efforts, but could not compair to the mystery toxin that had paralyzed over a dozen and more.

Every antidote and antivenom in storage was being employed to combat the poison that had traces of chemical and metallic elements, but to no avail. Poisons were never a speciality in Konoha, apart from being dishonourable it was also too slow for the standard Leaf tactics that are based on the 'Strike quickly, end it quickly' philosofy. The closest thing to an expert was Anko Mitarashi, who now lay with severe burns and concussions in the hospital. Attempts to find references to Sasori in the medical records failed, as they had been removed among other things by the traitor Mizuki, whom was found by an ANBU patrol several miles outside Konoha, though it took some effort to collect enough of him for a positive identification. A request for assistance was inmediatly sent to the Hidden Sand, Sasori's former home. But their own poison expert was a woman the age of the Third Hokage who was retired as a ninja, no one expected her to arrive in time.

The only thing that had any effect was bringing all of the afflicted in an artificial comatose-state that slowed down the advance of the poison, buying them an additional day or two.

At the Hokage Tower within the late Hokage's office, a meeting was held to decide Konoha's next actions, and how to fill up the position of Hokage. Those attending were the Village's available Jounin and chief Chunins, a large number of them having been sent out to reinforce the Village's outer borders in anticipation of a second assault by the unknown assailants, or a rival Village taking advantage of the Leaf's crippled state. Suna was sending reinforcements, but whom's concerns were mostly focused on protecting the Kazekage's children who would be next in line of procession, if the poison would not kill them first.

The Village Council, consisting out of three retired ninja elders, sat down before the group of ninjas on edge, none of them having taken the time for sleep or a rest.

"What is the status of Kakashi Hayate?" Though the Third never appointed an succesor after the death of the Fourth, the Copycat Ninja was deemed the closest thing because of his skill, intelligence, power and knowledge, all required attributes for a Hokage.

"Uncertain." The medic-nin's hands were trembling, his sleeves were covered in blood, and he would inmediatly return to the hospital for another twelve-hour shift. "We've treated his wounds, but an unexpected development of his Sharingan during the battle has caused a total exhaustion of his chakra reserves. Only time will tell if his chakra will restore itself and ensure a full recovery, or it will falter and lead to his death. If he does survive, it will take at least a month before returning to active duty."

"Thank you. Does anyone know the whereabouts of Jiraiya." While Jiraiya had refused the position of Hokage many times, and have an unsuitable irresponsible personality for it, he was the only of the Legendary Three who kept in contact with the Village, and was not on some self-imposed, or self-caused, exile in unknown lands. Even if the only reason for a visit was to peek at the women at the hot spring baths. Who oddily enough only complained or attacked him if he was too loud about it.

Before anyone could give an answer, the door to the office was battered open by the very same person they wanted to be here. He jumped into the office, taking a pose that rivaled Gai's in both pride and awkwardness. This time it was more disturbing, as Jiraiya clearly had been in a serious fight very recently, his clothes were shred on various places, one leg had a hasty bandage wrapped around it with blood leaking through, and his face featured cuts and bruises.

"What the hell happend to you?" Asuma blurted out.

" Nothing serious! A large number of cowardly criminals thought they could fight the Toad Hermit, to their disgrace, haHA!" The victorious smile faded for a moment as a sudden move reminded him of the pain in his leg.

The council thanked the gathered crowd for their time and recommended they should return to their duties. The room quickly emptied, with the exception of a few of the most elite ninjas and Jiraiya himself. who was quickly put to question by the elders.

"Two powerful criminals in black cloaks with red flowers..." Their tactics and uniforms indicated a organisation, one hostile to Konoha. They also showed an immense interest for Tailed Beast Hosts, as witnesses reported them going to some effort to capture them without lethal harm.

"Yes. And I recognized both of them. One of them was Kisame Hoshigaki, of the Hidden Mist. Used to be one of the Seven Swordsmen until he went rogue, a rather common fate for those elite ninjas. The other.." Jiraiya took a brief dramatic pause "..was Itachi Uchiha." Some gasps and mumbles of disbelief went around the room. The Uchiha prodigy who slaughtered his own clan, had joined an organisation of powerful fellow criminals who sought the capture of Hosts and the destruction of Konoha. An very unsettling thought.

"These are times of immense trouble for our Village, that could mean it's end. Enemies of incredible strength have gathered to destroy us, our Hokage is dead with no replacement and if a cure is not found soon for that wretched poison, most of our new generation of ninjas will die. Jiraiya, would you consider putting your objections aside and become the Hokage, as we seen no alternative.." Gai's hand rose up quickly. "..I say again, _no_ other alternative." Gai's hand lowered, slowly and ready to rise again.

"I will have to refuse." A volley of angry shouts at this lack of concern and responsiblity at this dire time came over Jiraiya before he could finish "..However-HOWEVER...I can track down another who would be far better suited for this responsibility, and have the greatest chance of curing the poison."

"You mean.."

"Yes. The legendary medic-nin Tsunade. But I will require aid, not in the form of a ANBU squad, but with someone who better than me can emphasize why the Village needs her more than ever."

The Village Council had a brief discussion among themselves wether this plan had any chance of succeeding, and wether Tsunade, a person who left the Village and hasn't returned in over 20 years, would be better suited than the Toad Hermit. Or Maito Gai. The decision was quickly made.

"We will support your mission. But you must have located, and return Tsunade, in three days, or the mission will be deemed a failure upon which you are to return to the Village and assume your role as Hokage." Those orders were exactly the kind that made Jiraiya avoid his home most of the time. "And as for your 'aid', who did you have in mind?"

* * *

To relief the hospital staff from the enormous strain on their space and resources that was to be reserved for those in real need, the light-wounded were taken in by those who had room for them, who were mostly the great ninja clans who owned buildings and grounds all over Konoha and beyond. One of them was the Hyuugas, who despite their strict and cold exterior attitude, were attentive of those in need. And as all Branch members who were not injured by attack, had been sent to guard the borders, there was plenty of space to harbor a few patients who would recover in a day or two before ruining the polished floor with blood.

In one patient's case, Hinata secretly wished for his recovery to take some time longer. Normally she was terrified to even speak to him, and now he was in her home, thanks to some horrible circumstances. The tranquilizer dose used by Sasori had been strong enough to knock out ten adult ninjas for a week, but the medic-nin said Naruto's above-normal metabolism would allow him to sleep it out in a few hours. The wounds caused by Hidan had nearly faded, and would likely not even leave a scar. If the embarassing incident of yesterday had been in a normal day, Hinata would have locked herself up in her room and not come out until her father led a ANBU-assisted siege. But the closeup view of death and destruction, lives being extinquished like candle flames by men who could not be called human in any way, had forced an acknowledgement within the timid Genin's mind. That no matter how fearsome affection and attention may be, there were worse things.

When Naruto suddenly opened his bright blue eyes, for Hinata the constant winner for Most Attractive Bodypart, and have them look around in great wonderment about where he was. Until they met hers, making Naruto bring out the new reigning Bodypart champion, his smile. Despite believing her love for him had evolved beyond shyness, she still shrieked and stumbled backwards, losing her balance. Using muscules that felt sore after yesterday's thrasing Naruto jumped up from the bed, and swiftly reached out his arm to snatch her wrist before her momentum drove into the floor. Not knowing what was wrong with Hinata making her so unstable, Naruto quickly pulled her into his arms tightly to keep her from falling as long as this unexplained attack of vertigo was taking effect on her.

He naturally expected her to be grateful. Not to scream into his ear and pass out, going all limb. The sound had attracted some attention, and within seconds the paper slide doors to the room within the ancestral Hyuuga compound were opened. Going through it were Naruto's teammate Sakura, one of the few who survived the battle at the stadium unscathed, who blinked a few times at the sight of an unconscious Hinata hanging in the arms of a half-naked Naruto.

"Oooh...that explains it." Sakura debated whether to chastize Naruto for being a blunt idiot who obviously did something indecent to cause Hinata lay flattend like that, or to cheer on Hinata for their romance to blossom in such a fast manner. Than she remembered who the other person was with whom she investigated the yell.

"Umuzaki..." Hiashi Hyuuga, father to Hinata, grinded the boy's name through his teeth. The sight of his daughter being held by the brat who was the container of the most powerful and evil of the Tailed Beasts, and covered the sacred Clan gardens in toilet paper several times, was something so disturbing and angering he was unable to think of an action or even a reflex. Hiashi heard the stories, everyone did, of Hinata staring at the boy from a distance and holding some silly crush on him. It was a common source of humour for Hiashi and the other adult Hyuugas. But seeing the relationship being taken a serious step closer, in the front of his eyes, in his house...

He took a step forward, after which there would be several more steps, followed by a hundred strikes to the heart, lungs, eyes and brain of the boy and than death. But the plan was interrupted by a big hand landing on his shoulder.

"Hiashi! Congratulations! Never did think your daughter would catch such a fine prize, did you?" Jiraiya's grip on Hiashi was gentle, but very restraining. He arrived just in time, to prevent an unnecessary murder and to catch his latest student succeeding in his first hunt of the feminine prey.

Poor Naruto didn't know what was going on, nor did he understand the implying everyone did. Hinata was just a friend, he was glad enough she didn't ignore him like most girls did or punch him for no reason, like one pink-haired girl did. But a seed, a very small seed, of understanding was being planted in Naruto's rather simple mind. By now Hinata had regained her senses, and the nearby presence of her father made another faint be a dishonour to the Clan. Slowly she removed herself from Naruto's arms, a regretted action.

"Get yourself dressed before you cause more girls to faint, and follow me. Your girlfriends can come along if they wish." Jiraiya said with a knowing wink to the boy who was suprised anyone would think of them as his girlfriends, before quickly trying to find his flashy orange jumpsuit, and cry in despair at the damage it had taken in the fight.

"Girlfriend!" Sakura and her inner personality screamed in unison, while Hinata fainted again despite her best efforts. Hiashi glared at the old Toad Hermit with a more intensive rage than usual.

* * *

A fair distance away, in a dark underground space where dim lights and tobacco smoke obscured any reliable sight beyond five feet, Tsunade gazed down on her cards and than at her opponents. They were all watching her, knowing the reputation she had as a legendary loser at these high-stake games, and the fact she had one amazing cleavage to stare at. Tsunade's niece Shizune, a short distance away wearing a worried expression and a small pig, always objected to this diversion tactic. Not that was indecent, but it didn't work as other cardplayers could win from Tsunade blind-folded.

Thus the suprise of Tsunade having a incredible set of cards, and winning 700,000 ryou, was a shock to her, Shizune, and the other cardplayers who felt the urgent need to go beat up the ninja who spread those rumours of her being horrible at these games. As they left the table, Tsunade was too busy staring at her new wealth, and Shizune with looking if the heavens were falling down, to inmediatly notice the new player seating himself. It took longer to observe his rather unusual attire. And than finally the mask, Tsunade didn't like ninjas wearing masks. They are always the cold-blooded ones, not wanting to show their emotions to look more intimidating. And especially this one, orange and drawn in a swirl that ended in a single eye hole.

But the suspect disguise became more odd with the frantic child-like chatter that erupted from the new player.

"Ooooooh! Cards! I'm good at this, really good! Let me play ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!"

"That depends. Do you have money?" While on her toes, this may could just be an idiot. Plenty of those managing to survive despite all odds, having known one in particular.

"Money? I have money!" A pouch belt was slammed hard on the table, with a sound of about 500,000 ryou, give or take, being within.

"Tsunade, please do not do this, we have enough money to last for the coming time." Shizune was diplomatic enough to not directly say that a sparse moment of luck could be lost just like that, especially against a fool who's contempt of failure or succes would have the Gods weighing heavily on his side.

"Silence. I'm on a roll." Just as Shizune feared. As the dealer began handing out the cards, Tsunade noticed in a brief clearing of the smoke-heavy air, her opponent's eye that was normally hidden by the darkness of the mask. It was a quick glance with little details, but Tsunade felt a sense of familairity. As if she had known this person, or seen that eye before.

"Pardon me, but could I ask what you are called in these parts." The masked individual looked at her, and replied in a soft and high-pitched voice.

"Tobi, ma'am. Just simple old Tobi."


End file.
